Scrapings, Cures, and Cleanings: Andean and Western Notions of Unwanted Pregnancy and Abortion in Highland Bolivia, 1982–2010

In green type on a white background, the sign posted outside a medical clinic on a busy street in La Paz, Bolivia in 2010, read: “Pregnancy tests and cures.”  Readers unfamiliar with Andean Latin America might not recognize the hidden meaning of the sign—which implicitly indicated that the clinic performed illegal abortions.  In Bolivia, where nearly two-thirds of the population is of indigenous Quechua or Aymara descent, pregnancy is sometimes conceptualized as an “illness” and abortion, a “cure.”  National demographic data testify to the elevated rates of illegal abortion in Bolivia, where approximately 3 in 5 women terminate at least one pregnancy in their lifetimes.  This is true despite the illegal status of the procedure and the widespread stigmatization of abortion in the Andean nation.  While dominant mestizo culture typically condemns abortion on religious or moral grounds, indigenous society often opposes the procedure because of its perceived negative impacts on community life.

Drawing on over 110 personal interviews with women who had abortions, western medical providers, midwives, and indigenous and women’s rights activists, this paper examines social attitudes toward and debates concerning unwanted pregnancy and abortion in La Paz and El Alto, Bolivia.  Focusing on the years between 1982, when democratic rule was restored to the country, and 2010, I analyze Western and indigenous conceptualizations of unwanted pregnancy and abortion during a period of social mobilization to liberalize abortion laws.  I argue that, in an era that witnessed the rise of Bolivia’s first indigenous president, the discourse of Western feminist activists seeking to decriminalize abortion often clashed with the perspective of newly strengthened indigenous movements.  While indigenous activists (including women) typically conceived of the decision whether to terminate a pregnancy as one involving the broader community, Western feminists typically couched the decision in a language of individual rights.