In recent years, abortion rights in the Americas have been marked by a series of advancements and setbacks. In places like Mexico and Argentina, the marea verde, or green tide of abortion rights activism, has spurred the decriminalization and legalization of abortion, respectively. Meanwhile, in the United States, the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision upended the precedent set by Roe v. Wade, resulting in immediate abortion bans in many places across the country that impacted abortion access for millions of Americans. In both Latin America and the U.S., growing feminist movements have clashed with conservative “pro-life” and “pro-family” movements, led in large part by the Catholic Church and evangelical groups. At the same time, Catholic feminist organizations have challenged dominant discourses that place religion and feminism in opposition, demonstrating how Catholic and feminist positions can be coherent and compatible. These organizations have played critical roles in the fight for abortion rights in Argentina, Mexico, and the U.S. and have worked together, across borders, to construct a transnational Catholic feminism.
Despite the critical work of these organizations, Catholic feminism and religious feminisms more broadly receive less attention in activist, academic, and media spaces than secular feminisms. Challenges to institutionalized religion, particularly the Catholic Church and evangelical churches, are central to abortion rights activism and advocacy, and rightly so. Yet often absent are discussions of women's faith and spirituality and how they inform decisions around sexuality and reproduction; understandings of the ways in which religion and feminism can exist alongside each other; and explorations of how religion may be a resource for feminism and the fight for abortion rights (Acciari 2022).[i] My research responds to this neglect of religion found not only in abortion rights activism and advocacy, but also in feminist movements across the Americas and in the field of feminist studies.
Bringing together feminist studies and religious studies, this paper examines contemporary Catholic feminism and abortion rights activism and advocacy in Mexico, Argentina, and the U.S. I focus on three nongovernmental organizations that serve as the most prominent Catholic feminist voices in each country: Catholics for the Right to Decide Mexico (CDD Mexico), Catholics for the Right to Decide Argentina (CDD Argentina), and Catholics for Choice (CFC) in the U.S. This paper is particularly interested in how these organizations strategically employ saints and their hagiographies to advance abortion rights. I explore the strategic use of saints in the organizations' most important activist and pedagogical tools. Specifically, I analyze the use of St. Antoninus in CDD Mexico's Catolicadas YouTube series; Mama Antula in CDD Argentina's social media; and St. Brigid and St. Antoninus in CFC's flagship publication, Conscience. My analysis focuses on materials produced from 2010 through 2024.
In the wake of Pope John Paul II's "sustained programme of ... 'strategic canonization,'" Catholic feminists have demonstrated that the “many models of holiness” the pope wished to highlight to advance the Vatican's agenda can also be employed to challenge the Church’s official positions, particularly as they relate to reproduction (Bennett, 2011, p. 441, p. 448).[ii] This paper makes three primary arguments. First, I find that these Catholic feminist organizations employ a transnational and/or transtemporal approach to their use of saints. This approach, while expected, does important work by demonstrating that reproductive justice and women's resistance more broadly are not new issues. Rather, they span centuries and borders. Second, a diverse set of hagiographies and texts are employed in distinct ways, demonstrating the wide-ranging potential of the saints for Catholic feminism. Finally, I argue that the strategic use of saints can be understood as a way for Catholic feminists to reclaim a process of saint-making that emerged not from the Catholic hierarchy but from local communities of believers who transformed lives into texts (Woodward 1990).[iii]
Ultimately, this exploration of the strategic use of saints in Catholic feminist activism and advocacy is just one example of how Catholic feminists employ one of the Catholic tradition's defining characteristics—namely its historical continuity marked by vast textual production by diverse actors—to advance abortion rights. In this way, I argue that, perhaps paradoxically, the Catholic tradition seemingly sets the stage for Catholic feminism to emerge.
[i] On religion as a resource for feminism: Acciari, Louisa, 2022. "Católicas e feministas: uma identidade paradoxal?" In Religião e democracia: desafios contemporâneos, edited by Américo Freire, Deivison Amaral, Evanize Sydow. Alameda: FAPERJ.
[ii] Bennett, Oliver. 2011. “Strategic Canonisation: Sanctity, Popular Culture and the Catholic Church.” International Journal of Cultural Policy 17 (4): 438–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2010.544726.
[iii] Woodward, Kenneth L. 1990. Making Saints: How the Catholic Church Determines Who Becomes a Saint, Who Doesn’t, and Why. Simon and Schuster.
This paper explores contemporary Catholic feminism and abortion rights activism and advocacy in Mexico, Argentina, and the U.S., with a focus on three nongovernmental organizations: Catholics for the Right to Decide Mexico, Catholics for the Right to Decide Argentina, and Catholics for Choice in the U.S. Specifically, I examine how these organizations strategically employ saints and their hagiographies to advance abortion rights. In the wake of Pope John Paul II's "sustained programme of ... 'strategic canonization,'" Catholic feminists have demonstrated that the “many models of holiness” the pope sought to highlight to advance the Vatican's agenda can also be employed to challenge the Church’s official positions (Bennett, 2011, p. 441, p. 448). Ultimately, the use of saints in Catholic feminism points to the ways in which the Catholic tradition, perhaps paradoxically, sets the stage for Catholic feminism to emerge.