Forms of Countermovement and Backlash. The Abortion Constitutional Controversy in Latin America

ALBA RUIBAL

Bogota

Workshop; Seminario Internacional sobre Política y Derecho en América Latina; 2019

Facultad de Ciencia Política, Gobierno y Relaciones Internacionales, Universidad del Rosario

This study analyzes four main types of counter-mobilization in the field of abortion law in Latin America, developed in Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Argentina over the past two decades. In contrast with the judicial backlash thesis, it argues against the adoption of an a-priori assumption that judicial institutions provoke conservative reactions, and presents an account of the development of countermovements and counter-reforms from a sociological perspective, by tracing them back to their interaction with political and legal opportunities.