Introduction

The practice of abortion has historically been highly restricted throughout Latin America. However, in the past two decades social movements demanding liberalization of abortion laws have emerged in almost every country. These movements emerged during the “Pink Tide,” when left-wing governments with a focus on social justice and redistribution came to power in the region. The book examines the interaction between women’s movements for abortion reform and left-wing governments in three countries: Uruguay, Chile and Argentina. It argues that women’s movements have established different interaction patterns with state actors that have led to three different policy outcomes around abortion reform in each case: 1) Collaboration between the movement and sympathetic leftist legislators leading to comprehensive abortion reform in Uruguay; 2) no collaboration and co-optation of movement demands by the Executive branch leading to the passing of a moderate abortion reform in Chile; and 3) political indifference from the Executive and Legislative branches leading to no legal abortion reform in Argentina. The likelihood of the interaction patterns mentioned above were mediated through institutional variables such as the characteristics of the party system, left-wing parties, balance of power and the role of the Catholic Church. The Introduction reviews the literature on social movements and gender politics in Latin America, presents the theoretical model and introduces the case studies.