Using Courts to Advance Abortion Rights in Latin America

ALBA RUIBAL

Ciudad de México

Workshop; Seminario Feminismos y Conservadurismos; 2019

FLACSO México e International Feminist Journal of Politics

Over the past two decades, and in the context of contemporary Latin American politics, generally marked by the reluctance of national congresses to promote abortion rights, the use of law and courts has been a way to expand abortion laws, ensure the implementation of lawful abortions and deter backlash processes. Furthermore, courts have offered a platform for social deliberation on abortion rights, and have expanded the legal opportunity for the participation of social actors in their proceedings. Through the analysis of the role of constitutional courts in the liberalization of abortion laws in Colombia, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, this study points out the diverse ways in which courts have contributed to the advancement of abortion rights in Latin America since the beginning of the 2000s. It discusses the assumptions of part of the literature on the use of law and courts for social change, which has warned on the pernicious consequences of the judicialization of social movement causes, and argues for a contextualized and empirically-based assessment of the role that courts can develop when dealing with highly controversial constitutional questions, such as those involved in the abortion rights controversy.