Body, politics and religion: the fight for the decriminalization of abortion in Brazil and Argentina – A challenge to the human rights of women

Abstract

This study has as object of study the experiences that occurred in Brazil and Argentina, on the political influence of the narratives of religious groups on sexual and reproductive rights, especially in the right to abortion. From an analysis of the historical development of Christian thought on the body and reproduction, as well as patriarchal development in Latin America. Its objective was to verify the interferences of these conceptions on the disputes for reproductive rights of women and how they act in the political processes in these countries. The research was developed through a bibliographic and documentary review, supported by the hypothetical-deductive method, with the aid of historical, legal, comparative and statistical methods. Studies on reproductive rights, religious thinking about women, as well as international human rights treaties, laws and bills of the two countries in reference were analyzed. Both Brazil and Argentina went through a process of colonization that articulated the economic exploitation and the imposition of Christian customs on peoples. In both, Christianity is still predominant in relation to other religions, a reality that is effectively mixed with politics in these countries from the election of candidates to the implementation of various political projects. Even with clear historical divergences between Christian groups, the majority and uncompromising defense is that life begins from conception. In this sense, attempts to decriminalize abortion and effect reproductive rights in the countries under study face religious groups and conceptions, which put pressure on the social movements of women mobilizations, demand commitments of candidates in it and articulate movements 'pro-life' '. In Brazil, it is estimated that in 2014 almost 500,000 women between 18 and 39 years old had an abortion (PNA, 2016) and between 400 and 600,000 abortions in Argentina in 2007 (CARBAJAL, 2007). In the midst of the confrontations of religious groups and religious groups, abortion is a harsh reality to be faced throughout Latin America, which has as a rule the criminalization and disrespect of the conceptions adopted by international human rights treaties and letters.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56238/tfisdwv1-024