Elisabeth Jay Friedman
(University of San Francisco)
Constanza Tabbush
(University of Buenos Aires-CONICET and UN Women)
Gisela Zaremberg,
(Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences [FLACSO] Campus Mexico)
On a range of gender justice issues, particularly abortion rights, the United States has been positioned as an example for ‘lagging’ Catholic Latin American countries to emulate. Recently, the tables appear to have turned, challenging linear understandings of progress and shifting notions of who is trailing whom. Despite fierce opposition, most Catholic Latin American countries continue on a liberalizing path to expanding sexual and reproductive rights. After the pioneer case of Uruguay, which enshrined the right to abortion in law in 2012, others have followed suit: Chile expanded sexual and reproductive rights in 2017; Colombia and Mexico decriminalized abortion in 2022; and the Argentine Congress legalized abortion rights in 2020. Moving in exactly the opposite direction, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe vs. Wade has rolled back 50 years of women’s constitutional right to abortion. The U.S. has now joined ranks with Nicaragua and Honduras, the only other countries in the Americas that have moved towards restricting abortion in these past years. The Court’s decision is probably the most significant regression in women’s rights seen on the American continent, because it will put countless lives at risk. It also threatens access to contraception and regression with respect to both marriage equality and gender-affirming medical care, and is likely to bolster anti-abortion and radical conservative groups globally.
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