Neoconservative Legislative Mobilization In Brazil and Women’s Rights

From the 1987-1988 Constituent Assembly to Law Project 1904/2024

Authors

  • Adriana Vidal de Oliveira Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)
  • Isabelle Augusto Faria Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22409/conflu.v26i3.64939

Abstract

Although feminist movements around the 1987-1988 Constituent Assembly played an important role in preventing the rollback of women's sexual and reproductive rights, growing neoconservatism in legislative spaces has brought to light narratives of restrictions on legal abortion provided for in the Penal Code since 1940. In view of this, this article aims to demonstrate the influence of religious groups in the search for shaping policies on the subject, creating barriers that prevent not only the expansion of reproductive rights, but also the application of the secular legal hypothesis. By analyzing, in contrast, the discussions presented at the time of constitutional renewal and, currently, Bill No. 1,904/2024 of the Chamber of Deputies, we can see the attachment of religious groups to scientific arguments as tools to reinforce preexisting moral positions, especially with regard to the protection of fetal life from conception and the equivalence of abortion in advanced stages to a crime against life. Both contexts share a restrictive view of abortion and the defense of medical and legal interventions to avoid the procedure in cases of fetal viability. In this scenario, resistance to sexual and reproductive rights, especially the right to abortion, is presented as part of a coordinated effort by conservative sectors to bring religion closer to the law and reverse feminist advances.

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Author Biographies

Adriana Vidal de Oliveira, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)

Doutora em Teoria do Estado e Direito Constitucional pela PUC-Rio (2012). Atualmente é Coordenadora Central de Educação Continuada da PUC-Rio, professora de Direito Constitucional e de Teorias feministas e relações de gênero na graduação em Direito e professora de Direito Constitucional Comparado no Programa de Pós-Graduação stricto sensu em Teoria do Estado e Direito Constitucional. É professora vinculada à Red Latinoamericana de Académicas/os del Derecho (Red Alas), dedicada ao ensino do Direito para a inclusão das perspectivas de gênero e sexualidade nos conteúdos e na metodologia jurídica.

Currículo Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/8002400150496526

Isabelle Augusto Faria, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)

Mestre em Teoria do Estado e Direito Constitucional na Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro - PUC-Rio (2024). Pós-graduada em Direito das Famílias e Sucessões na PUC-Rio (2023). Pesquisadora Voluntária do Projeto de Pesquisa Diálogos sobre Justiça Reprodutiva: normas jurídicas, políticas públicas e práticas de litígio (DIJURE).

Currículo Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/7233307857859351

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Published

2025-01-31

How to Cite

VIDAL DE OLIVEIRA, A.; AUGUSTO FARIA, I. Neoconservative Legislative Mobilization In Brazil and Women’s Rights: From the 1987-1988 Constituent Assembly to Law Project 1904/2024. Confluências | Interdisciplinary Review of Sociology and Law, v. 26, n. 3, p. 145-170, 31 Jan. 2025.

Issue

Vol. 26 No. 3 (2024): Dossiê Diálogos latino-americanos sobre direitos humanos e justiça reprodutiva: trajetórias de debates e mobilizações em 20 anos de judicialização do aborto no Brasil

Section

Dossiê

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Adriana Vidal de Oliveira, Isabelle Augusto Faria

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