Frente parlamentar evangélica e os direitos sexuais e reprodutivos das mulheres: entre ativismos e silenciamentos.

Abstract

The Sexual and Reproductive Rights of women were built from feminist struggles, which claimed self-determination of women's bodies. Historically, the realization of these rights has been hindered by the strong influence of various religious denominations derived from the Christian tradition. The present text intends to approach the production of discourses by the Evangelical Parliamentary Front of the National Congress (FPE) regarding Women's Sexual and Reproductive Rights. Through these discourses we will visualize the social representations that are constructed around reproductive and sexual functions. The first chapter is subdivided into two moments. The first moment has the purpose of describing the historical path of consolidation of Women's Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Western culture, and with greater emphasis in Brazil. We then present the most relevant discussions held about these rights, which aim to guarantee women's integral health. In the same way we register the difficulties in the construction of the debates during the military dictatorship and the influence of religion in this process. The second moment of the first chapter brings a theoretical discussion about the Theory of Social Representations based on readings by Serge Moscovici and Jodelet. In the second chapter, a survey is carried out on Bills of Law (PL), Legislative Decree Bill (PDL) and Proposal of Amendment to the Constitution (PEC), proposed by deputies and senators of the FPE and two other fronts, the Parliamentary Mixed Front Against Abortion and in Defense of Life and the Parliamentary Front in Defense of Life and Family. We verified three central categories into which the analyzed documents can be divided: the abortionist perspective (proposals that are against abortion and try to prohibit it under any circumstances or make access to legal abortion more difficult), the eugenicist approach (proposals for compulsory sterilization of the poorest population by making sterilization more flexible) and the denialist and conspiratorial proposals (which deny scientific evidence based on false perceptions, claim that some contraceptive methods are abortifacients, and bring conspiratorial elements of world population decrease). These three categories show the strong biopolitical control exercised on these bills and amendments by evangelical deputies and senators. The methodology used is qualitative, the techniques used are: documental survey of the legislative proposals based on official data from the House of Representatives and structured interviews with women from civil society. With the help of Maxqda software we analyze the data collected in the interviews. According to the previous results achieved, we observed that the FPE has carried out an insistent political and religious activism on the reproductive and sexual functions of women, presenting a strong biopolitical control by the state. The women interviewed also perceived that parts of these proposals by the Evangelical parliamentarians present actions that can be considered illegitimate and violent. The approached theme is pertinent, since it dialogues with studies on religion and politics, bringing up the Sexual and Reproductive Rights of women, as measures for the consolidation of Human Rights. We believe that our study can contribute to the debates around the categories of gender and sexuality, bringing reflections on political activism and state control over female bodies.