The Debate on Abortion: Positions, Opinions, Perceptions and Arguments

Conclusions

Given the extremely conservative political climate in the region, the powerful, growing influence of the Catholic Church hierarchy and right-wing groups, combined with the greater participation of civil society, abortion, as Htun (2003) has pointed out, is one of the thorniest, most polarized political issues faced today by the incipient democracies of the various countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. This debate includes the spheres of sexuality and reproduction and touches the limits between the private lives of individuals and the public sphere.

Despite the fact that this debate has already lasted for several decades, its intensity and its repercussions on the actions and interventions of several actors varies in each of the different countries. In some, like Guatemala, for example, this debate and its consequences still seems to be extremely limited or virtually nonexistent, if one takes as a reference the number of publications on the subject. In other countries, like Brazil and Mexico, the debate is more intense and continuous. This situation is largely due to the political and ideological conflicts within the various countries and the strength and trajectory acquired in them by the social forces that have the greatest influence on the legislative transformations and actions of the State.

The most intensely-defended argument of the actors and organizations opposing the decriminalization and legalization of abortion rests on the premise that human life begins from the moment of conception. Therefore their main aim is to achieve protection for the life of the unborn at the constitutional level. For the social actors advocating legalization and decriminalization, the central argument has been transformed. Now they no longer speak of abortion merely as a public health problem and one of social injustice; nowadays the accent is placed on the problem of human rights, power relations between the sexes and on the right to freedom of conscience, which implies respecting people’s beliefs and values, whether or not they profess a religion (Lamas, 2003). These rights and terms are associated with the need to limit and redefine State intervention in decisions on sexuality and reproduction that concern intimate, private and individual life. In this sense, the concepts of democratization and citizenship are included as part of the feminist movement.

It is interesting to note that the breadth of the defense of the right to abortion within the limits imposed by local legislation (and even as a demand beyond its current legal status), includes international organizations such as the UN that have approved the human rights approach to abortion. Some of these cited by Hessini (2005), include The Human Rights Committee, The Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Committee, The Committee for Children’s Rights and The Committee for the Elimination of all Types of Discrimination against Women. This last, for example, argues that ignoring health care and issues concerning women is a form of discrimination and that governments are obligated to deal with this situation. An example of this is the fact that this committee urged the Chilean government to consider the revision and authorization of abortion laws, in particular to provide safe abortions and to permit the interruption of pregnancy for therapeutic reasons or for women’s health, including their mental health (p. 92) (Hessini, 2005). The support provided by these organizations is important for the legitimacy of progressive discourse surrounding the right to safe abortion.

This discourse is complemented by a public health argument in which the influence that legislations, public policies and existing programs have on human rights, especially those of women, are emphasized.

It is also important to know that even in countries where abortion has been decriminalized, its practice is problematic. Decriminalization is not enough unless one implements the legal and service mechanisms required to deal with its demand or with its continued, unsafe practice. Such mechanisms include educational programs and access to integral reproductive health programs that are both timely and of high quality. Beyond this, emphasis must be placed on the bureaucratic procedures and norms that so often become insurmountable barriers to women seeking legally authorized abortions.

It is within this scenario that the active participation of a feminist movement in favor of expanding the legislation, decriminalizing abortion, and supporting the regulation of abortion care in health services has been crucial in the achievements obtained to date. Ortiz Ortega (2002) notes the emphasis acquired by this movement particularly since the 1990’s in countries which, like Mexico, began their transition to democracy.

More recently, certain countries in the region have seen greater mobility and social commitment by other actors, particularly health professionals, in relation to the problem of abortion. This mobility is often the result of civil society’s interest in involving this sector, whose actions are crucial in dealing with abortion and its consequences. The tension between professional ethics and guidelines and the personal convictions of those working in the health sector are crucial elements that come into play when thinking about or discussing abortion. For this reason, it is enormously interesting to take the pulse of these professionals, as has occurred in surveys and in publications that orient reflection on abortion as a dilemma in their professional sphere. An example of these types of materials include The Drama of Abortion, by doctors Faúndes and Barzelatto (2005), and Secular Medical Ethics, by Dr. Pérez Tamayo (2002). There is not only a range of surveys and studies on the knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of health service providers, but recommendations have also been submitted and published on how to expand the work that is done with this group (Dabash et al, undated; Ramos, 2005). Some of these recommendations include: sensitizing health professionals to issues of gender and women’s rights as they relate to the consequences of unsafe abortion, publishing the legislation on abortion in the places where it is performed, ensuring that abortion permitted by law becomes a common service, and continuing to undertake research on the management and defense with this sector.

As with the medical sector, there have been a significant number of surveys undertaken on other sectors of the population, including the general population, the results of which vary by time and country. They usually indicate that support exists for certain types of abortion, for example in cases of protecting women’s life or health as well as when a pregnancy is the result of rape. However, many of the analyses drawn from these studies reveal the gender inequities prevalent in societies in the region, since interviewees often view as less valid reasons for abortion that involve a woman’s autonomy or right to make her own reproductive decisions. Moreover, the higher the educational attainment of the population interviewed the less restrictions are placed on the practice of abortion. Survey results indicate the need for a greater dissemination of information on the legal status of abortion in the various countries in the region.

Despite certain advances reflected in the literature and the greater participation of other sectors, it is also useful to note the expansion of social forces opposing the legalization and decriminalization of abortion at the international and regional levels. These forces, as shown in this chapter and the previous one, have also produced certain achievements at both the discursive and the practical levels.

Organized civil society has played an undeniable role in the debate on abortion. Its contributions include the advance and expansion of arguments on the issue along with achievements recorded in the region. The malleability of the discourses concerning the management and defense of the issue are recorded in the literature. The incorporation of arguments that rest on abortion as a human rights issue and the search for equity and equality provide proof of this, as do the links between abortion and poverty –which expand social justice arguments in accord with the international agenda of the Millennium Development Objectives. It is striking, too, that the literature describes occasions when civil society has adopted and sometimes resolved difficult cases, such as that of Rosa in Nicaragua, through its own means. The connections fostered between different sectors of the society and the international movement concerning crucial moments create an echo that operates, to a certain extent, to protect solutions which at other times would have elicited reprisals.

New technologies, such as abortion through medication, also herald new paths in management and defense. The shift of an intervention such as the interruption of pregnancy from the public to the private sphere allows the feminist role to assume a different importance, avoiding the risk that this movement will continue without questioning gender power relations (Ortiz in Franzoni, 2002) (p. 34).

However, one should recognize the fact, as noted earlier, that social issues of greater justice and social and gender equity, as well as the free exercise of sexual and reproductive rights required and demanded by the population, which are a fundamental parts of modern citizenship, are aspects that have yet to legitimized and incorporated into public actions in the majority of countries in the region. This is true in both the legislative sphere and in the realm of health services related to the practice of abortion.

At the same time, the reduction of the State’s role and resources in social programs, particularly those related to reproductive health, resulting from neo-liberal policies, structural adjustment programs, and the imposition of market forces, constitutes a formidable barrier that must be borne in mind when attempting to improve conditions of access to abortion services.

^ Top of page

Home | Summary | Acknowledgements |