Lula against abortion: positions of the leaders of the Latin American left

The decriminalization of abortion procedures has become one of the main causes of the feminist and progressive movement in Latin America, which has prompted this agenda to be incorporated among politicians who claim to represent liberal and leftist policies on the continent.

However, the leaders who ideologically recognize themselves in the spectrum of the left have shown ambivalent positions regarding abortion, and have tended to moderate, and even change their positions on the issue in order to gain access to executive power in an area where the Christian religion has high influence among the inhabitants and their electoral tendencies.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the representative of the Workers' Party (PT) and candidate for the presidency of Brazil, changed his speech regarding this procedure in a video in which he assured: "I am not only against abortion but all women I've married are against abortion." This statement caused discomfort among his political base and reflects a contradiction in his positions in the past in which he stated that "abortion is a public health problem" and that "everyone should have the right" to access this procedure.

In turn, the reaction of the current president and candidate for the presidency of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, was immediate when he declared on his Twitter account that "Lula is now trying to say that he is against abortion while being supported by those who defend; that he is a Christian while being supported by those who hate the church.”

“There is nothing more shameful than defending an idea contrary to everything you believe only to be accepted. It is the worst sign for a leader. After all, those who, through power, are able to put aside even their own values, will never lift a finger to defend those of a nation”, he concluded in his statement through social networks.

Political analysts in Brazil linked this change in the speech of the candidate Lula da Silva to the intention of collecting votes for the second round of the presidential elections in the 30% of the electoral potential that is recognized within the Christian Evangelist religion, who are mostly identified with the conservative positions of the candidate president Bolsonaro. This, taking into account that the candidate da Silva left some reassuring messages for his political base by declaring that the issue of abortion is not the responsibility of a president, but must be debated in Congress, and stressing that the woman is the one who " has hegemony over his body".

AMLO in Mexico "does not take sides on abortion"

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador declared that he would not take sides in the face of conflicting positions on the decriminalization of abortion in his country after 10 ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) declared an article of the penal code unconstitutional of Coahuila and determined that criminal punishment against women who decided to have an abortion was unconstitutional since their human right to decide was violated.

"This is a decision of the Judiciary, of the Supreme Court that was practically unanimous that must be respected, that we should not, in my case, take sides because there are conflicting positions," said the head of the federal Executive.

Pedro Castillo, the self-styled Marxist-Leninist, and Catholic

Since before the first presidential round in Peru, the now president of the Andean nation was forceful with his position regarding the request for this type of right in his country.
"I would not legalize abortion at all," Castillo said in a report on the RPP network. "We are going to move the debate to the National Constituent Assembly, but personally I do not agree," warned the then-candidate for the Free Peru party.

On these and other issues such as same-sex marriage and euthanasia, President Castillo has maintained a conservative profile so as not to weaken the scant margin of governability he has had.

Boric, does not give up in his defense of abortion in Chile

Despite the defeat in the constituent plebiscite that had an open door for the free abortion project in Chile, President Gabriel Boric manages a bill that will be processed in the Congress of the southern country, which aims to decriminalize the practice of abortion without grounds in your country.

The Minister for Women, Antonia Orellana, during an interview on CNN Chile, revealed that "conversations have already begun with groups of women's organizations, gynecologists, professional associations and also with feminist movements, to discuss the government's commitment with the advancement of sexual and reproductive rights.
Alberto Fernández fulfilled his campaign proposal to the feminist collective.

The president of Argentina signed on Thursday, January 14, 2021, the decree for the promulgation of the abortion law, approved last December 30 by the Senate. "I have kept my word, today we have a better society, today we have a more egalitarian society, today we begin to write another story, that of seeking more rights where imbalances still exist," said the Argentine head of state, in an act that had a place in the Casa Rosada.

Petro and his zero abortion policy

In February of this year, the then-candidate for the Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, congratulated the women for the decision of the Constitutional Court where abortion was decriminalized until the 24th week of gestation, a decision that he considered as an advance in the fight against the criminalization of women, most vulnerable, who access the practice.

However, the now president of Colombians recalled that in his opinion this practice should only be carried out until week 14 and that his public policy will seek that "Every society must prevent, with sexual education and technological measures so that abortion does not exist, I call that zero abortion.

Abortion is not positive nor should it be encouraged, but that does not imply criminalizing women in that way, if you criminalize women you are not achieving a zero abortion society”.

Arce does not rule on abortion in Bolivia

The president of Bolivians has ignored this demand for civil rights in his country even when several protests broke out a year ago in October 2021 because an 11-year-old girl who had been raped was denied the possibility of aborting.

The president limited himself to declaring that the Catholic Church's approach to the girl's family to reconsider interrupting her pregnancy was an "interference."