ABSTRACT
In 2012 Uruguay legalized abortion by request during the first trimester, becoming the second country in Latin America to overturn the criminalization of the practice. The chapter demonstrates how a strong abortion rights movement, taking advantage of an open and receptive political system and a highly secular society, designed a path of collaboration with sympathetic allies in power that led to successful and comprehensive abortion reform. An analysis of the country’s political institutions, Executive preferences, the history of the Catholic Church in Uruguay and the birth and evolution of the movement for abortion reform provide an explanation of why this close collaboration between activists and left-wing legislators was possible.
