Category: Volume 19, Number 1

Camila Gianella Abstract State and non-state actors engaged in disputes to expand and limit abortion rights have engaged in legal mobilization—in other words, strategies using rights and law as a central tool for advancing contested political goals. Peru, like other Latin American countries, has experienced an increase in abortion rights legal mobilization in recent years, including litigation before national and international courts. This paper centers on societal legal mobilization, or…

Continue reading “Abortion Rights Legal Mobilization in the Peruvian Media, 1990–2015”

Marta Rodriguez de Assis Machado and Débora Aves Maciel Abstract This article proposes a relational approach to the study of abortion law reform in Brazil. It focuses on the interaction of pro-choice and anti-abortion movements in different state arenas and political contexts. It details the emergence of a strategic action field on abortion during the Brazilian re-democratization process and the National Constituent Assembly. We offer analysis on pro-choice and anti-abortion…

Continue reading “The Battle Over Abortion Rights in Brazil’s State Arenas, 1995-2006”

Ana Cristina González Vélez and Isabel Cristina Jaramillo Abstract In May 2006, Colombia’s Constitutional Court liberalized abortion, introducing three circumstances under which the procedure would not be considered a crime: (1) rape or incest; (2) a risk to the woman’s health or life; and (3) fetal malformations incompatible with life. Immediately following the court’s ruling, known as Sentence C-355, members of La Mesa por la Vida y Salud de las…

Continue reading “Legal Knowledge as a Tool for Social Change: La Mesa por la Vida y la Salud de las Mujeres as an Expert on Colombian Abortion Law”

Jocelyn Viterna and Jose Santos Guardado Bautista Abstract Using the case of El Salvador, this article demonstrates how the anti-abortion catchphrase “abortion is murder” can become embedded in the legal practice of state judicial systems. In the 1990s, a powerful anti-abortion movement in El Salvador resulted in a new legal context that outlawed abortion in all circumstances, discouraged mobilization for abortion rights, and encouraged the prosecution of reproduction-related “crimes.” Within this…

Continue reading “Pregnancy and the 40-Year Prison Sentence: How “Abortion Is Murder” Became Institutionalized in the Salvadoran Judicial System”

Jocelyn Viterna and Jose Santos Guardado Bautista Abstract Using the case of El Salvador, this article demonstrates how the anti-abortion catchphrase “abortion is murder” can become embedded in the legal practice of state judicial systems. In the 1990s, a powerful anti-abortion movement in El Salvador resulted in a new legal context that outlawed abortion in all circumstances, discouraged mobilization for abortion rights, and encouraged the prosecution of reproduction-related “crimes.” Within this…

Continue reading “Pregnancy and the 40-Year Prison Sentence: How “Abortion Is Murder” Became Institutionalized in the Salvadoran Judicial System”

Johanna B. Fine, Katherine Mayall, and Lilian Sepúlveda Abstract International and regional human rights norms have evolved significantly to recognize that the denial of abortion care in a range of circumstances violates women’s and girls’ fundamental human rights. These increasingly progressive standards have played a critical role in transforming national-level abortion laws by both influencing domestic high court decisions on abortion and serving as a critical resource in advancing law…

Continue reading “The Role of International Human Rights Norms in the Liberalization of Abortion Laws Globally”

Wendy Chavkin, Laurel Swerdlow, and Jocelyn Fifield Abstract Since abortion laws were liberalized in Western Europe, conscientious objection (CO) to abortion has become increasingly contentious. We investigated the efficacy and acceptability of laws and policies that permit CO and ensure access to legal abortion services. This is a comparative multiple-case study, which triangulates multiple data sources, including interviews with key stakeholders from all sides of the debate in England, Italy, Norway,…

Continue reading “Regulation of Conscientious Objection to Abortion: An International Comparative Multiple-Case Study”