Redemocratization and Brazilian Feminist Movements: The Fight for Abortion Legalization in the 1980s

Abstract

The article discusses the actions of feminist movements in the struggle for the legalization of abortion in Brazil during the democratic transition of the 1980s. Based on exploratory and qualitative research on the Brazilian case, theoretical research and interviews with leaders from three feminist movements were conducted. The study addresses the main milestones in the fight for abortion legalization until the end of the military dictatorship in 1985; the mobilization to include the right to abortion in the Constitution, highlighting the role of the National Council for Women’s Rights and the Constituent Assembly; and the implementation of the first legal abortion service in the country in 1989, at Hospital Jabaquara in São Paulo.