From the U.S. to Brazil: Tides of Progress, Abortion Access, and the Law

From the U.S. to Brazil: Tides of Progress, Abortion Access, and the Law
CUNY School of Law, Room 1/205 | October 23, 2024 at 12:30 pm

Hosted by the Institute on Gender, Law, and Transformative Peace and co-sponsored by the Human Rights  & Gender Justice Clinic, and If/When/How: Lawyers for Reproductive Justice at CUNY School of Law

Please join us for a lunch and moderated discussion about recent trends and setbacks in reproductive justice from around the world. Over the past three decades, there has been an overwhelming trend toward the liberalization of abortion laws globally, due to the advocacy of sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice movements including the Green Wave across Latin America. But in recent years, four countries have acted against these tides of progress, instead rolling back reproductive rights and criminalizing abortion: the United States, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Poland. Other countries have been slow to expand legal protections for abortion — in Brazil, abortion has remained a crime since the 1940 Penal Code, and even in cases where it is legal (rape and threat to pregnant person’s life), it is very difficult to access. Why is abortion being criminalized in certain countries but expanded in others? What are the legal and on-the-ground realities of these comparative contexts, and what can reproductive justice lawyers do to protect and expand access to abortion? The panel conversation will explore these questions and more from a comparative and cross-national perspective of those on the front lines.