ORBIT-OnlineRepository ofBirkbeckInstitutionalTheses Enabling Open Access to Birkbeck’s Research Degree output The conservative resistance against women’s bodily integrity in Latin America : the case of Chile https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/40282/ Version: Full Version Citation: Alvarez Minte, Gabriela (2017) The conservative resistance against women’s bodily integrity in Latin America : the case of Chile. [Thesis] (Unpublished) c 2020 The Author(s) All material available through ORBIT is protected by intellectual property law, including copy- right law. Any use made of the contents should comply with the relevant law. Deposit Guide Contact: email The Conservative Resistance Against Women's Bodily Integrity in Latin America; The Case of Chile Gabriela Alvarez Minte Birkbeck, University of London Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy I declare that the work presented in this thesis is my genuine and original work. 1 Abstract This research analyses the conservative resistance to women's women's bodily integrity, specifically women's sexual and reproductive rights in Chile, responding to the questions (1) How are policies on sexual and reproductive rights contested and blocked in Chile? and (2) What drives this resistance? Using empirical analysis and qualitative research, it explores the historical legacies of the dictatorship (1973 - 1989) and its implications for current policy making and the history, strategies and influence of the Catholic Church. It also looks in de- tail at three current policy processes: sexuality education, access to emergency contraception and decriminalization of therapeutic abortion. It concludes that women's sexual and repro- ductive rights challenge core conservative principles and generate fear of social change. They are contested by principles institutionalized by the dictatorship, based on conservative ideas about naturalized gender roles and the roles of institutions within a perceived organic and natural society. Institutional legacies include the political and economic system, the subsi- diary role assigned to the state limiting its reach and giving space to conservative private businesses to influence policy making. Progress is slow because political institutions and political parties are vulnerable to conservative influence, evidenced by the role of the Cath- olic Church in the transition to democracy, and in the shift to a conservative agenda in the 1990s. The political power and influence of the Chilean conservative elite has also been key. The resistance is driven by committed conservatives using a range of strategies, convinced of the need to maintain a natural order in the family and gender relations, where reproductive rights challenge this order. The resistance is also facilitated by politicians and authorities at local level. Contents Table of Contents1 List of Figures......................................6 List of Tables......................................7 List of Acronyms....................................8 1 Introduction 12 1.1 Justification.................................... 15 1.2 The case...................................... 19 1.3 Outline....................................... 21 2 Theoretical Framework 27 2.1 Introduction.................................... 27 2.2 Women's bodily integrity............................. 30 2.2.1 Normative framework and existing gaps................. 30 2.2.2 Conceptual framework.......................... 31 2.2.3 A differentiated analysis of sexual and reproductive rights...... 36 2.3 Conservatism................................... 39 2.3.1 Conservatism, religion and politics................... 42 2.4 Conclusion..................................... 47 1 3 Research Methods 50 3.1 Analytical framework............................... 51 3.2 Data Collection.................................. 56 3.2.1 Interview process............................. 57 3.2.2 Other data sources............................ 61 3.2.3 Quantitative data............................. 62 3.3 Challenges..................................... 63 4 Gender and Women's Rights in Latin America and Chile 66 4.1 Introduction.................................... 66 4.2 Context...................................... 67 4.2.1 Women and the democratic transition.................. 68 4.2.2 Political parties.............................. 72 4.3 Previous research on sexual and reproductive rights in Chile......... 75 4.4 The context in Latin America and Chile.................... 85 4.5 Conclusion..................................... 92 5 The legacies of the Dictatorship 1973-1989 94 5.1 Introduction.................................... 94 5.2 The Dictatorship................................. 96 5.2.1 Kast's National Development Plan................... 101 5.2.2 Guzm´an'sConstitution of 1980..................... 103 5.2.3 Almirante Merino's changes to the Sanitary Code........... 108 5.2.4 Subsidiarity of the state and the new education policies........ 114 5.3 Conclusion..................................... 117 6 The Catholic Church 120 2 6.1 Introduction.................................... 120 6.1.1 Regional comparative data on religious identification......... 122 6.2 History: social justice versus the moral agenda in the Catholic Church.... 125 6.3 The influence of religion in the secular sphere................. 138 6.4 The conservative Catholic elites......................... 144 6.5 Conclusions.................................... 148 7 Sexuality education in schools and the control of young people's sexuality151 7.1 Introduction.................................... 151 7.1.1 Presenting the problem: young people's access to sexual and repro- ductive rights............................... 152 7.2 Pregnant teenage students............................ 157 7.3 Sexuality education in schools: Jornadas de conversaci´onsobre afectividad y sexualidad (Conversation Workshops on Relationships and Sexuality) (JOCAS)162 7.4 The Evaluation Commission of JOCAS..................... 168 7.5 Lav´ın’soutsourced sexuality education plans.................. 175 7.6 Interministerial relations between the Health and Education Ministries... 180 7.7 The principles used in the sexuality education debate............. 182 7.8 Conclusions.................................... 187 8 The struggle to stop access to Emergency Contraception (EC) 189 8.1 Introduction.................................... 189 8.2 The legal battle to ensure access to emergency contraception......... 192 8.3 The implementation of the law.......................... 199 8.4 How did the resistance work?.......................... 204 8.4.1 The main arguments used........................ 204 8.4.2 The politics involved in the process of access to EC.......... 214 3 8.4.3 The influence of the market and economic elites............ 220 8.5 Media coverage and the role of evidence.................... 227 8.5.1 The Lawyers involved in the judicial process against EC....... 236 8.6 The implications................................. 239 8.7 Conclusions.................................... 243 9 The conservative view and strategies on abortion 247 9.1 Introduction.................................... 247 9.1.1 Abortion in Chile............................. 248 9.2 Historical analysis of the law proposals..................... 252 9.3 Conservative principles against abortion.................... 259 9.4 Conservative strategies against abortion.................... 268 9.5 Conclusions.................................... 273 10 Conclusions 277 Appendices 292 A Religion 292 B Interviews 296 B.1 Interview Schedule................................ 301 B.1.1 Progressive interviewees......................... 301 B.1.2 Conservatives............................... 302 C List of parliamentarians and speakers 307 4 References 313 Bibliography 313 Interviews 364 5 List of Figures 1.1 Ratio of female to male of the population (ages 15 to 64) that actively en- gages in the labour market by adolescent fertility rates in Latin America and countries belonging to OECD (UNDP-HDR 2012)............... 18 6.1 How important is religion in your life?(percentages).............. 123 6.2 How often do you attend religious services?(percentages)........... 123 6.3 Religious denomination in Chile 1989-2014 (percentages)........... 125 6 List of Tables 6.1 Religious denomination(Percentages)...................... 124 7.1 Births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19 for selected Latin American countries (HDR 2010).................................... 155 9.1 Is abortion justifiable? (Scale) (Percentages).................. 251 9.2 Abortion is never justified (logistic regression: dummy)............ 252 A.1 How important is religion in your life? (Percentages)............. 292 A.2 How often do you attend religious services?(Percentages)........... 293 A.3 Religious denomination.............................. 294 A.4 Religious denomination Chile 1999-2014 (percentages)............. 295 B.1 List of interviewees .............................. 296 B.2 Interview codes.................................. 304 C.1 List of deputies that signed the petition against the delivery of EC and other contraceptive methods in the Constitutional Tribunal............. 307 C.2 List of speakers in discussion in Congress on Law 20,418........... 308 7 List of Acronyms AUGE Acceso Universal con Garant´ıasExpl´ıcitas (Universal Access with Explicit Guaran- tees) APROFA Asociaci´onChilena de Protecci´onde la Familia (Chilean Association for the Protection of the Family) BPfA Beijing Platform for Action CEDAW The Convention