Federalism, two-level games and the politics of abortion rights implementation in subnational Argentina

Abstract

The implementation of the 2012 Argentinean Supreme Court landmark ruling, which declared abortion legal in all cases of rape and established standards of implementation of lawful abortions at all levels of government, shows an uneven pattern of compliance by subnational governments throughout the country. Based on a case-study of the implementation of the Court's decision in the province of Salta, this article advances an explanation of mechanisms that can affect the definition and enforcement of abortion rights at the local level, in a federation. Drawing on Putnam's concept of two-level games, it argues that, at critical junctures, local authorities and especially strong governors with presidential aspirations, may have electoral incentives at the national level to comply at least partially with national laws and judicial decisions which are contrary to their own ideological preferences and their local political allegiances. The study suggests that analyses of political opportunities for local reproductive rights activists in federal regimes should include the potential two-level games of local authorities, such as politicians with presidential aspirations, and judges who intend to pursue a career in national or international institutions. Through this analysis, the article intends to contribute to our understanding of the political determinants of subnational compliance with national abortion laws and court decisions in federal systems, and more generally, political factors and dynamics that shape inequities in the protection of women's rights under federalism.

Necessary but not sufficient: a scoping review of legal accountability for sexual and reproductive health in low-income and middle-income countries

“… 104 Similarly, implementation of laws may vary subnationally, as local politicians react to national level court decisions through the lens of their own political ambitions. 147 …”

Unpacking power dynamics in research and evaluation on social accountability for sexual and reproductive health and rights

“…Process tracing has been used to identify when and where community members are able to lobby regional or district authorities for changes rather than only local providers, as well as analysing power dynamics among different groups in community meetings [8,22]. Process tracing can be particularly useful in assessing variations in policy implementation and the drivers for these differences, such as a study conducted by Ruibal that describes the political determinants of differing levels of compliance with abortion law in Argentina [23].…”

Explicando las actitudes hacia el aborto: Religiosidad, Ideología y Región

“…Existe una buena cantidad de investigación en Argentina que se enfoca en las cuestiones legales y en el rol de los movimientos de mujeres (sociales y legislativos) en la promoción del tema del aborto (Blofield, 2006;Lopreite, 2012Lopreite, y 2014Ruibal, 2017), así como sobre el tipo de discurso empleado en el Congreso y por los movimientos feministas (Felitti y Prieto, 2018). También existen estudios que han indagado sobre las posiciones de la jerarquía de la Iglesia Católica planteadas en los pronunciamientos públicos de la Conferencia Episcopal Argentina (Rabbia y Sgró Ruata, 2014).…”