Feminist politics for abortion rights in Brazil: From local to global

This paper discusses feminist mobilization for abortion rights in Brazil, considering the multiple strategies and framings engaged by activists to advance their agenda in different institutional levels, from local politics to international human rights systems. It takes as a premise that abortion is a contested topic in Latin America, where these rights are frequently undermined and restricted by conservative actors in institutions. Negotiating this context, feminist movements and organizations incorporate multiple legal strategies and framings into their repertoires of contention to advocate for abortion rights and resist attacks from conservative political actors. The aim of this paper is to discuss how feminist movements and organizations use these strategies and framings in national and international institutions. The paper includes four levels of social and legal mobilization: local, in which feminists lobby governments and courts into strengthening protection and realization for abortion rights; national, in which feminists organize to influence change in Congress, federal government, and Supreme Court; regional, in which feminists build coalitions and networks with other organizations in the Latin American region to reach common strategies and framings for advocacy; and international, in which feminists take their demands to human rights systems, such as the United Nations and the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. This paper’s interest lies in analysing the potential dialogues and pushbacks between movements and institutions, the tensions of activism’s institutionalization, and the obstacles and opportunities for social transformation through the employment of legal mechanisms. This research draws on the literature on legal mobilization to understand movements’ perceptions and expectations of legal bodies and institutions and their influence on agenda-setting and repertoires of contention. The methodological approach combines methods such as interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. Overall, this paper assesses potentialities and limitations of the engagement of Brazilian feminist movements and organizations with national and international institutions to promote legal and social change. It aims at contributing to theoretical debates about power in law-making, development of human rights, and feminist politics in conservative settings.