Fighting for Abortion Rights in Latin America. Social Movements, State Allies and Institutions

Abstract

Although they share similar socio-economic and cultural characteristics as well as their recent political histories, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay differ radically in their abortion policies. In this book, Cora Fernández Anderson examines the role social movements play in abortion reform to show how different interaction patterns with state actors have led to three different policy outcomes: comprehensive abortion reform in Uruguay; moderate abortion reform in Chile; and no legal abortion reform in Argentina. Synthesizing a broad range of literature and drawing on in-depth field and archival research, she analyzes the strength of the campaigns for abortion reform, their relationships with leftist parties in power and the context of Church–state relations to explain this diverging trajectory in policy reform.