“We Stand for Life”: Anti-abortion activism in Mexico City

• In Event: Mexico D.F.: Generating Cultural and Political Change

Abstract

Provida, the world’s largest and most powerful Catholic anti-abortion organization, first emerged in Mexico in 1978 in response to political proposals to decriminalize the procedure there. Provida now has a presence in 23 of 31 Mexican states as well as the federal district. Mexico City’s watershed abortion legalization in 2007 has ushered in a new era of anti-abortion activism as activists feel, now more than ever, the dwindling power of the Catholic Church and the gains of the feminist movement. Indeed, Mexico City feminists have worked hard to defend the secular values enshrined in Mexico’s constitution and establish a clear boundary between Church and state. The successes they have witnessed in terms of progressive legislative changes must be contextualized within Mexico City’s location as a focal point for social change in the country. In light of this situation, in this talk I ask: How do Provida activists make sense of these profound changes in Mexican society? How do they conceptualize their work? While much social science research has examined the implications of abortion reform from the perspective of women who access the procedure, virtually nothing has been written on the religious activists who devote their lives to combatting these developments. In this talk I draw from interviews and participant observation with Provida activists in one small community in Mexico City’s most populous borough to examine the above questions in this fraught moment in Mexico’s history.

Author

• Elyse O Singer, Washington University