The Dublin Declaration on Maternal Health Care and Anti-Abortion Activism Examples from Latin America

• Published in: Health and human rights Vol. 19; no. 1; pp. 41 - 53
• Main Author: MORGAN, LYNN M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States The President and Fellows of Harvard College 01.06.2017; Harvard School of Public Health; Harvard University Press
• Subjects: Abortion; Abortion, Criminal; Abortion, Induced; Activism; Activists; Americas; Bioethics; Chile; Developing Countries; Double effect; Family Planning Policy; Family Planning Services; Female; Fetus; Health services; Health status; Human Rights; Humans; Irish politics; Latin America; Legal declarations; Maternal & child health; Maternal characteristics; Maternal Health; Maternal mortality; Maternal mortality rates; Mortality rates; Politics; Pregnancy; Pro life movement; Reproductive rights; Social Control, Formal; SPECIAL SECTION ON ABORTION AND HUMAN RIGHTS; Tactics; Womens health; Latin America
• ISSN: 1079-0969; 2150-4113

The Dublin Declaration on Maternal Healthcare—issued by self-declared pro-life activists in Ireland in 2012—states unequivocally that abortion is never medically necessary, even to save the life of a pregnant woman. This article examines the influence of the Dublin Declaration on abortion politics in Latin America, especially El Salvador and Chile, where it has recently been used in pro-life organizing to cast doubt on the notion that legalizing abortion will reduce maternal mortality. Its framers argue that legalizing abortion will not improve maternal mortality rates, but reproductive rights advocates respond that the Dublin Declaration is junk science designed to preserve the world’s most restrictive abortion laws. Analyzing the strategy and impact of the Dublin Declaration brings to light one of the tactics used in anti-abortion organizing.