Freeman Cordelia, Rodríguez Sandra
Department of Geography, University of Exeter. Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter, EX4 4RJ.
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.
Int Fem J Polit. 2024 May 26;26(3):633-656. doi: 10.1080/14616742.2024.2335643. Epub 2024 Apr 22.
Abortion is a public secret in Latin America. It is highly restricted across the majority of the continent and yet millions of abortions take place every year. We use the sociological framework of 'strategic ignorance' to argue that convenient not knowing, erasure and concealment allow for the simultaneous negation and allowance of abortions in Latin America. By drawing on interviews with people involved in abortion activism and access across the continent we examine three sets of actors: the state, abortion providers and individuals. When wielded by the state, strategic ignorance reproduces the status quo of the criminalization of abortion but when wielded by abortion providers and individuals it creates the conditions for 'clandestine' abortions to be procured without prosecution. Strategic ignorance is therefore mobilized by the powerful as well as the powerless who are resisting state control of their fertility and reproductive lives.
堕胎在拉丁美洲是一个公开的秘密。在该大陆的大部分地区，堕胎受到严格限制，但每年仍有数百万例堕胎发生。我们运用“策略性无知”的社会学框架来论证，便利的不知情、消除和隐瞒使得拉丁美洲在堕胎问题上同时存在否定和容忍的情况。通过对拉丁美洲各地参与堕胎维权活动及提供堕胎服务的相关人员进行访谈，我们考察了三组行为主体：国家、堕胎服务提供者和个人。当国家运用策略性无知时，它会重现堕胎刑事化的现状，但当堕胎服务提供者和个人运用时，它为“秘密”堕胎创造了条件，使其得以实施且不受起诉。因此，策略性无知既被有权势者利用，也被那些抵制国家对其生育和生殖生活控制的无权势者利用。
