Latin American sexual and reproductive rights under debate: exploring the role of religious affiliation

Abstract

Rights linked to gender and sexuality are one of the cleavages that structure contemporary politics in Latin America. In this contribution we focus on citizen attitudes regarding sexual and reproductive rights in the region, with particular attention to the role played by religious affiliation. Based on a public opinion survey carried out in six countries in the region in 2021, our study firstly analyses citizens’ opinions on same-sex marriage, sex education, and abortion, across countries and religious groups. Secondly, a logistic regression analysis is used to examine the role played by religious affiliation, while controlling for sex, age, and educational level variables. We show that religious affiliation has a significant impact on citizens’ opinions as regards sexual and reproductive rights and that unaffiliated people tend to be more favourable towards sexual and reproductive rights than affiliated people.