Special issue: Abortion Lawfare in Latin America – Some Reading Keys For a Changing Scenario

This special issue brings together novel scholarship produced since 2013 by a project of similar name based at the Centre on Law & Social Transformation, Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI), the University of Bergen (Norway) in partnership with scholars and institutions from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and the USA. FGV Direito SP was not only involved in the in-depth case study on Brazil, coordinated by Marta Machado, but hosted in 2016 one of the comparative workshops, and public seminars, to discuss and reflect on the case studies and on the abortion battles over the region.

The project’s initial aim was to reflect on the phenomenon of the legal battles of abortion rights in Latin America, and the political dimensions of these. Across the region, abortion rights were already emerging as a contested issue during electoral campaigns. Moreover, cases, such as the Colombian and the Mexican, were already showing the possibilities of backlash of legal victories, through constitutional reforms bills, or the use of political power to discourage providers and women seeking for abortion services, as well as the risks of weak implementation of the judicial rulings expanding abortion rights.

One initial finding was that actors involved in the legal battles on abortion rights across Latin America use different arenas and strategies, sometimes simultaneously. Moreover, the exchange between Latin American scholars allowed them to identified similarities on the strategies and arguments used to advance in the recognition of abortion rights, as well as to limited them. These first findings encouraged the idea to edit a journal issue that would describe key features of the regional phenomenon of the legal battles on abortion rights in Latin America from specific cases.

The special issue describes key features of the regional phenomenon of the legal battles on abortion rights in Latin America from specific cases. Guest editors for this special issue are Camila Gianella, Maria Angelica PeÑas Defago and Marta R. de Assis Machado.