One challenge opened by contemporary sexual politics in Latin America is to rethink
the relations between religion and law. The debate on the regulations of sexuality,
reproduction or the family makes visible the complex interconnections between
religious worldviews and the legal system. Particularly, how the secularization of law
has been compatible with an imbrication process in which law traduces and conserves
catholic sexual morality into secular regulations. The article offers an analysis of the ways
in which stakeholders in conflict over sexual and reproductive rights in Latin America
mobilize religion and the law to pursue their agendas. First, the article considers the
main strategies implemented by the feminist and sexual diversity movements in order
to overcome the power and influence of the Catholic Church on lawmaking processes.
Although these movements tend to share an anti-clerical standpoint, they present a
complex and dynamic construction of religion. Second, it presents different adaptions
by Catholic sectors in defense of a natural sexual order. In their quest to influence state
legal systems, these sectors deploy a dynamic and strategic understanding of religion
and its impact upon public and legal debates. Building upon these considerations, the
article contributes to the question of the complex articulations between religion and law
in contemporary Latin America.