Lopreite 2014

not yet published, politics of reproductive rights

• Introduction
• variation in domestic policy re: reproductive rights in Arg, Mex (1)
• both are federal countries with subnational mobilization on these issues
• looks at role of women legislators and political parties in understanding success of gender legislation (2)
• separates contraception and abortion, as they engender different responses (3)
• Explaining Legislative outcomes
• would expect:
• number of women in legislature to increase bills on women's issues
•  party ideology and fragmentation will also come into play: strong ideology drives legislators, fragmentation suggests parties will be less liekly to take a stand on the issue (4)
• National level politics in favor of women's reproductive rights was bleak with Menem, Fox (4-5)
• In Mexico, PRD control of DF meant that DF allowed contraception and abortion (6)
• this resulted in conservative backlash in other parts of the country
• ability of states to create own penal code allowed for political opportunities in both directions (7)
• Starting with Duhalde, women legislators in Argentina able to get federal government ot OK contraception rights (8)
• Women in Congress and Preferences toward Reproductive Rights
• Lots of Women in Arg parliament (9)
• Mexico doesn't follow quotas well (11)
• Political parties fragmentation in Argentina means parties don't take strong stand, women able to form cross-party coalitions (11-12)
• Conclusions:
• number of women in legislature was not a determining factor for policy success (13)
• party ideology was key
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