The Genesis and Consolidation of Brazil's Anti-Abortion Movement: Counterposing the “Countermovement” with the Trans/national Religious Field

Abstract

The article traces a genealogy of Brazil's so-called “pro-life” movement, from the 1960s through the start of the New Republic. It counterposes the concept of the “religious field” to the movement/countermovement framework through which pro-life movements are often analyzed, generally interpreted as a backlash to feminism. Bourdieu's concept helps reveal the plural oppositional dynamics that have shaped their history. Situating the Brazilian movement within a trans/national religious field, the article highlights how two key shifts in the 1980s -- the new papacy of John Paul II and Ronald Reagan's empowerment of the Religious Right in the United States -- aligned it with an increasingly global(ist) Religious Right. It is based on a larger archival research project on reproductive politics and governance in Brazil.

Keywords

• Abortion
• Reproductive politics
• Social Movements
• Religious field
• Globalization