Abstract
Women across Latin America speak to
“They are classifying women into good and bad, into pure and promiscuous,” said Nalu Faria, a psychologist at the Brazil chapter of the World March of Women international feminist movement. “The belief is that those who are on the wrong side, be they black people, working-class people, women or the LGBT community, ought to be punished.”
Faria believes that this conservative stance will have an impact, especially on the youngest.
“The little sexual education there is in schools now is going to disappear under the new government,” said Faria. “There is a moral crusade against the so-called gender ideology, and sexual education is going to fall victim of this.”
But Brazil is not an isolated case in Latin America when it comes to women’s reproductive rights being endangered by ultra-conservatives.
When Daniela López’s parents found a condom in her room in Mexico City, all hell broke loose.
“There was no dialogue, no questions asked. They scolded me and said that no condoms were allowed in the house,” López said.
She was 16 at the time, and was not sexually active. She had received the condom at a health centre without any explanation. There were no sex education classes in her school, and the subject was banned at home.
“There is a taboo around contraception, and it starts with the idea of sexuality. Society teaches us girls that we need to preserve ourselves until marriage, so there is no talking about contraception. Even when we get married, contraception is not on the table, because the aim of marriage is conception,” said López.
Now 23, she studies teaching methods and gives workshops to adolescents about contraception. She says that most girls are worried about becoming infertile if they use intra-uterine devices or hormonal methods such as the pill. At the same time, they find condoms unreliable because they have to negotiate their use with their partners.
Samady Baldelomar Menacho, an 18-year-old high school student in Bolivia, shares a similar experience.
She is part of a network called Tu Decides (You Decide) and leads sex education workshops in her school in the city of Santa Cruz, where teenage pregnancy rates are the highest in the country.
“When a girl wants to ask a question, she feels ashamed. Only men are free to talk about sex here. If a girl asks a question, they look at her like she is crazy or a bad person,” she said. “It is the result of a long chain of machismo. My mum taught me and my grandmother taught my mother: women stay in the kitchen to serve men and obey, while men are in charge. So it is the men who decide if contraception is used or not.
A women’s rights activist demonstrating in favour of legalising abortion in Sao Paulo, Brazil
CREDIT: Nelson Almeida/AFP/Getty Images
“Because of the taboo around contraception, there has been an epidemic of teenage pregnancies.”
In Latin America and the Caribbean, 62% of women aged 15-49 want to avoid a pregnancy. However, 22% of them are not using an effective contraceptive method, according to a 2015 report by the United Nations Population Fund and the Guttmacher Institute.
“Patriarchal traditions and culture continue existing in certain sectors of Latin American society,” Esteban Caballero, regional director of UNFPA for Latin America and the Caribbean, told Index. “Patriarchy wants to keep its control over women’s fertility.”
The ineffective use of contraception takes a staggering toll, especially on the youngest. The latest report by the Pan-American Health Organisation, published in 2018, says that Latin America and the Caribbean is the sole region in the world where under-15 pregnancies are on the rise, and it is surpassed only by sub-Saharan Africa when it comes to teen pregnancies.
The taboo around contraception also has other serious consequences. In indigenous, remote areas, women are often told what to do to prevent pregnancies by shamans or local midwives who lack medical knowledge and often suggest methods that are dangerous.
In Ecuador’s Amazonian region, health workers have reported cases of women who used toothpaste after having sexual intercourse to wash off the sperm. Toothpaste cannot kill sperm, but it can lead to vaginal irritations or infections.
Irlanda Morales, a 24-year-old medical student, is part of a network that promotes reproductive rights in Chiapas, Mexico. She told Index that she was once approached by a woman who believed contraception was immoral. The woman said that she thought she had successfully avoided pregnancies by having intercourse when she had a green vaginal discharge – which is, in fact, a sign of infection.
Unwanted pregnancies may also end in abortions, which are often unsafe in a region where more than 97% of women of reproductive age live under restrictive abortion laws. The US-based Guttmacher Institute calculates that 10% of all maternal deaths in Latin America are due to unsafe abortions.
Legalising abortion has been an uphill battle in many Latin American countries, where the Catholic Church has mobilised against it. Last August, the church backed the Argentinian senators who rejected a bill to legalise abortion.
“I believe that the strong taboos and myths related to the use of contraception in Latin America are a result of the teachings of the Catholic church’s hierarchy,” said María Consuelo Mejía, director of the Mexican chapter of Catholic Women for the Right to Choose, a movement spanning Latin America.
For instance, emergency contraception has been banned in Honduras because of the idea that taking the morning-after pill is tantamount to abortion.
Baldelomar Menacho points out that the lack of information makes it possible for sexual abuse to remain widespread and to go unreported. Data suggests that under-15 pregnancies are often a result of rape or early marriage.
Youth-friendly services can challenge these taboos, she says.
“When we are among peers, there is more trust. Even women feel free to ask more questions. Adults can teach about sexuality and contraception, too, as long as they treat us with respect.”
Despite the rise of conservative, religious attitudes, such as Bolsonaro’s, over the past years, Latin America has also seen a rise of women-led and youth-led movements. For example, the so-called green wave in favour of legalising abortion in Argentina inspired similar campaigns across the region, with women sharing their stories of illegal abortions and talking freely about sex education. Despite the political predominance of conservatives around the continent, the battle to break down sexual taboos is slowly being won.