Feminism, Catholic Church and Sexual and Reproductive Rights in the PostDictatorial Chile

Abstract

In the last decades, sexuality and reproduction have become areas of disputes between antagonistic actors, generating a regional dynamic of advances and retreats on the sexual and reproductive rights agenda. In Chile, many reforms in these areas have been stopped by conservative opposition, while others simply have not even become publicly discussed. Current literature highlights the existence of two major causes that can explain the obstacles to the recognition of these rights in the country: the influence of Catholic hierarchy in the shaping of sexual politics and the weakening of feminist and women movements in the post-dictatorial period. This article pretends to analyzes some factors that can clarify the causes of these two processes. In the case of the Catholic Church, I consider two factors that could explain the influence of this institution in the delineation of post-dictatorial sexual politics. First, the moral authority conferred to the church because of its social and political activity throughout the twentieth century, and second, the role given to it by the elites in the achievement of political consensus during the nineties. In the case of feminism, I analyze the process of normalization of its discourse, the devaluation of militancy and the institutionalization of the movement, as explanatory factors of the weakening of its ability to impact sexual politics.