O Estatuto do nascituro no Brasil: direitas anti-direitos, estratégias legislativas e alianças religiosas na restrição dos direitos reprodutivos (1985-2022)

Abstract

This dissertation aims to analyze the trajectory of proposals related to the Statute of the Unborn in Brazil, based on an analysis of bills introduced between 2005 and 2022, with a time frame spanning from 1985 to 2022. The study seeks to understand how this set of bills and the mobilizations surrounding them can be interpreted as a strong expression of anti-reproductive rights activism, articulated through legislative strategies and alliances between conservative religious groups and sectors of the Brazilian New Right. In this sense, the research presents the debate on women’s reproductive autonomy and the issue of abortion since the National Constituent Assembly, viewing this moment as the beginning of a field of contention between reactionary religious sectors and the feminist movement. With regard to methodology, a content analysis was conducted on the bills regarding the Statute of the Unborn proposed between 2005 and 2022, using Voyant Tools software, in order to map the most frequently used terms and help identify discursive patterns. The analysis allowed us to divide legislative activity into two periods: the first, between 2005 and 2018, marked primarily by the presence of male representatives and the use of moral and religious arguments; and the second, between 2019 and 2022, characterized by the inclusion of female actors from the right-wing spectrum, through female deputies, as well as a shift in arguments, which became more sophisticated and began to employ legal language. Thus, the research seeks to understand the strategies employed by anti-rights activism, such as technocratization, the mobilization of emotions, the use of rightsbased language, framejacking, framing, the legitimization of myths, and dual militancy. In this sense, the Statute of the Unborn is understood as a mechanism of control over women’s bodies and citizenship, by reframing rights-based language with the aim of rolling back rights already guaranteed to women in Brazilian democracy.