Susana Chavez Alvarado is a feminist, obstetrician, Master in Public Health, expert in Sexual and Reproductive Health, gender, violence and human rights. She is the founder of PROMSEX, Center for the Promotion and Defense of Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Executive Secretary of the Latin American Consortium Against Unsafe Abortion (CLACAI).
Noor: Let’s start by talking about the work done by CLACAI, especially in the Latin American context, around reproductive justice. Please give us an overview of the very important work SRHR activists have done and are doing and why is it important that feminist and SRHR activists around the world commemorate International Safe Abortion Day?
SCA: CLACAI is the first Latin American network that includes various key actors in access to safe abortion, such as service providers, activists, researchers, lawyers, and companions, among others. During the 15 years of existence of this network, it has become a space of convergence to support national initiatives and, in particular, organizations in each country that propose advances in policies for access to safe abortion, even in conditions where restrictions exist.
CLACAI proposes to channel technical resources and alliances to strengthen the regional movement, either by bringing evidence closer, opening spaces for collaboration and, above all, seeking spaces for meetings that strengthen synergies between organizations of different sizes and approaches. In this way, we can bring small organizations together at the same table with large organizations, opening an opportunity to exchange experiences, stories and lessons learned.
CLACAI currently brings together more than 300 organizations, more than 600 people, having as one of its main actions the generation of face-to-face and virtual meetings. In this sense, every two years CLACAI organizes Regional Conferences, so far it has held 7 conferences, which are highly appreciated by the communities working on abortion issues. The last conference organized in Panama City, Panama, last June, was attended by more than 450 people. In these conferences, thematic meetings are also organized, which allow to deepen in new topics that enrich the regional agenda.
CLACAI exists thanks to the trust of donors, but above all, of its member organizations that help with the mobilization of resources and that allow us to have the dimension of activities that we develop.
CLACAI also has working groups, one of the most important and most developed of which is the CLACAI Legal Network, made up of more than 140 women lawyers from the region, from which they strengthen a network of rapid responses to cases of judicialization, including technical reports, amicus curiae and other forms of legal and legal support and mobilization.
In relation to resources generated, CLACAI contributes to the knowledge of the abortion debate with a repository specialized in abortion, which has more than 300 publications that can be visited at https://www.clacaidigital.info/. This space also has a news portal, dedicated to the analysis and reflection of opposition groups, which can be visited at: https://lamalafe.lat/.
In addition, over the last few years, CLACAI has developed a series of topics including:
- Addressing child pregnancy, within the framework of “Protect them now”: https://clacai.org/informacion/comunicados/protegerlasya-conoce-la-campana-latinoamericana-que-propone-lineamientos-para-la-atencion-de-ninas-embarazadas/
- Reproductive Health is Vital, a monitoring and research system about sexual and reproductive rights: https://saludreproductivavital.info/
- Specialized studies such as: Laws and Shadows: https://leyes-y-sombras.clacai.org/ and a Timeline on Legal Milestones on Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Latin America: https://clacai.org/lineadetiempo/
- Working Groups for Self-Care and Support in Providing and Accompanying Safe Abortions.
Noor: What are the impacts of far-right nationalism and religious fundamentalism on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and non-binary folks across the world?
SCA: Opposition groups are playing a very dangerous role, since in the last 10 years, they have gained very important spaces of power at the congressional and governmental levels. It is increasingly common to observe the dispute between democracy and authoritarianism, even in countries with solid democracies and a tradition of respect for human rights. In many of these countries, it is common to hear hate speeches, xenophobia, discrimination, fear as if these were a normal part of politics and when competing in electoral campaigns, rather than achieving dialogue and consensus, key components of democracies, they appeal to confrontation and polarization, taking advantage in many cases of the frustrations or structural flaws that our countries still suffer from.
One of the issues of confrontation is anti-gender, which seeks to roll back common senses that have already been won, such as women having the same rights as men or respect for sexual diversity and life projects. In other words, changes that have allowed us to improve as a society, as several indicators show (women with better educational and economic standards, criminalization of gender violence and homophobia, civil rights for the LGTBI population, among others).
However, and this is something we must be very realistic about, is that anti-gender and human rights denialism, whether religious or political, which in certain sectors is recognized as fundamentalism, does not only come from the ultra-right, neoliberals or libertarians (the latter who believe in freedom per se, without generating conditions for equality from the State). It also comes from leftist sectors, which claim to represent the majority and speak on behalf of the poor, who have incorporated in their speeches, anti-gender positions and nationalism and that is the real danger, because the democratic sectors, which have incorporated gender equality, human rights, social justice, have been defeated by an incendiary discourse, which appeals to the death penalty, the militarization of society and criminality as the only answers and promote patriarchy in its crudest and harshest expressions.
Unfortunately, feminism is no stranger to this extremism, such is the case of exclusionary trans feminism, which, with arguments of biological determinism, denies recognition and respect for sexual diversity, affecting trans and non-binary people.
Noor: This year the theme for ISAD is Young People’s Leadership in Abortion Justice. How important do you think the role of young people and youth leadership is in challenging fundamentalism and fascism especially in relation to SRHR?
SCA: I believe that the leadership of young people is fundamental for any cultural change, especially for abortion as a human right. Young people are not only giving us possibilities to continue the agenda, but also to transform this struggle, to update it in the scenario of the times.
In fact, our first sign of maturity as a sexual and reproductive rights movement has to be intergenerational and I strongly believe in formative, experimental spaces where different generations come together.
Many of us, when we started to be part of feminism, our spaces were small, almost all of us did the same thing and therefore, we knew the same thing. However, today young feminism is more widespread, diverse, creative and abortion has the virtue of being a point of unity and is recognized by all and especially by young women, as a nodal aspect, which involves personal experiences, but also the political tasks of feminism, so abortion is not only in activism, it is in the academic world because it is in the demand for rights under the common approach, It is in life, in the autonomy of women and of people with the capacity to gestate, who are the ones at the center of the discussion and this, which seems obvious and indisputable, is from my point of view, one of the contributions that have been built through generations, because those who preceded us were not all necessarily committed to the right to abortion.
Noor: How important is transnational feminist solidarity and organizing in challenging oppressive and unresponsive policies regarding SRHR and the anti-choice agenda?
SCA: It is fundamental and is also part of our history. Feminism is a current of global thought, which has allowed us to change and advance women in the world and which has been nourished by intersectionality and the different local and national realities. This is what has allowed us, even with our profound social and normative differences, to have common axes, since the gender inequality that was initially made visible for women in all continents and cultures, has spread and benefited other groups. Hence, feminism has probably been the source that has contributed the most conceptual resources to understand and recognize sexual diversity.