With the election of President Jair Bolsonaro in 2018, neo-pentecostal politicians came to occupy important positions in government, including evangelical pastor Damares Alves as Minister of Women, Family and Human Rights. Recently, Alves provoked an outcry when she interfered personally in the case of a ten-year-old girl who sought a legal abortion after being raped by her uncle, mobilising various state institutions to try to prevent the medical procedure. Eventually, the girl had to be transferred to another state to carry out the legal abortion.
In foreign policy, Bolsonaro’s election has provoked a 180-degree turn in the country’s position. Once recognised worldwide as a defender of the universalism of human rights, Brazil has made the fight against ‘gender ideology’ a flagship project, thereby strengthening its ties with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iraq.
Poland: Catholic religious fundamentalism
Poland is another important player in the international pushback against reproductive justice. In 2019-20, the re-election of ultra-conservative Andrzej Duda as president and the parliamentary majority won by the national-conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) solidified the right's hold over Poland’s main political organs.
The close and long-established relationship between the government and the Polish Catholic Church has become increasingly evident in recent years. Alongside PiS, the legal lobby group Ordo Iuris and ‘anti-abortion activist’ Kaja Godek, head of the Life and Family Foundation, represent the two main anti-choice actors.
Those radical right-wing Christian organisations focus on issues such as divorce, contraception, access to abortion, and sexual orientation. Ordo Iuris experts hold (or previously held) positions in government, including the Supreme Court and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
These groups are also part of a global network of fundamentalist Christian organisations that involves the secretive movement of huge sums of money between key countries, including Brazil, France, Poland and the US. In particular, Ordo Iuris has close ties with the Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) movement in Brazil.
Abortion access is a key target for these groups and one of the main civil-society issues in Poland. At the centre of these controversies is abortion on the grounds of foetal deformity – so-called ‘eugenic abortion’ – which currently accounts for 98% of all legal abortions performed in Poland. In October 2020, the Polish Constitutional Tribunal deemed this exemption to be unconstitutional, and in January 2021 this judgment became law, thereby placing a de facto ban on abortion in the country.
Egypt: state regulation and public morals
As for Egypt, the influence of conservative and religious perspectives on sexual and reproductive matters has increased in the post-colonial era. Since 1923, Egyptian constitutions have contained articles that establish the heterosexual family as the “basic unit of society”.
Successive regimes, including those of Nasser (1954-70), Sadat (1970-81) and Mubarak (1981-2011), maintained this conception, while Islamic Sharia law is the source of legislation for marital and private matters, leaving no space for non-heterosexual trajectories. Accordingly, the body has become a responsibility of the state and not of individuals. This has been reflected in the criminalization of any social and sexual relationships not conforming to the heterosexual family frame.
Current president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, a former general and director of military intelligence, led a military coup against the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013. Sisi’s regime presents itself as a “virtuous” replacement of the Brotherhood, attempting to please the country’s conservative majority. This includes the curtailment of reproductive justice.
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