Deinstitutionalization and Youth Attitudes towards Gay Marriage and Abortion: the Decline of the Catholic Church in Argentina

This paper outlines the extent to which the current young adult cohort in Argentina reports ties to the Catholic Church, and how these ties or lack thereof impact their attitudes towards gay marriage and abortion. I analyze data from 120 paper surveys distributed and collected in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This convenience sample was drawn among students of the private University of Belgrano and the public high school General San Martín Technical School No. 5. Binary logistic regressions show that controlling for age, gender and class, Catholicism does not significantly predict attitudes towards gay marriage or abortion, but increased religious attendance significantly predicts negative attitudes towards both. Age is the only control variable that significantly predicts attitudes towards abortion, while class is nearly significant in predicting attitudes towards gay marriage. Overall, the data shows widespread secularization and religious diversification, and suggests that low levels of institutional integration among young adult members of the Catholic Church lead to high levels of acceptance of both gay marriage and abortion. INTRODUCTION The intersection of religion, politics and moral debate is inseparable from the historical context within which a nation’s broader societal views have developed, as legal changes reflect changing social values (Domingo 2010). Argentina, whose government has already legalized gay marriage and currently faces pressure to reconsider the legal status of abortion, provides a prime example of how a traditionally Catholic society can come to contextualize moral debates within a secular frame. Changing institutional contexts as well as individual characteristics shape attitudes towards each of these topics. In Argentina, the deinstitutionalization of individual attitudes towards gay marriage and abortion draw upon a sociohistorical context in which the decline of the Catholic Church plays a hand in the expansion of progressive attitudes among younger populations. This research contributes to the literature on the factors which influence an individual’s attitudes towards the controversial sociopolitical debates on gay marriage and abortion rights, while placing these attitudes within the context of a process of religious deinstitutionalization among Argentine youth. In doing so, this paper outlines the extent to which the current young adult cohort in Argentina reports ties to the Catholic Church, and how these ties or lack thereof impact their attitudes towards gay marriage and abortion. LEGAL STATUS AND APPROVAL OF GAY MARRIAGE IN ARGENTINA Argentina takes a considerably progressive political stance on the topics of gay marriage and abortion. In 2003, civil unions were legalized in Buenos Aires, the first city in Latin America to make such a step. On July 21, 2010, the second female President of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, signed a bill legalizing gay marriage throughout the country. With the passing of this law, Argentina became the first Latin American country to fully legalize same-sex marriages, following in the footsteps of South Africa and Canada, as well as seven countries in Europe. The rights granted to same-sex couples in Argentina are now equal to those of heterosexual couples, including the right to adopt children. L. RUEDIGER: DEINSTITUTIONALIZATION AND YOUTH ATTITUDES -2While the passing of the gay marriage law quelled much of the political debate regarding the topic, abortion continues to be a hot-button issue among many feminists and human rights activists in Argentina. After the legalization of gay marriage, abortion has come to the forefront of moral and political debate in the country (Piette 2010). Abortion in Argentina is illegal yet common. While the law allows for abortion under a few special circumstances such as rape, mental disability, and health threat to the mother, this allowance is rarely upheld under the law, and is subject to long delays (Guse 2010). In early 2012, the Argentine Supreme Court passed a ruling which modified the traditional interpretation of the penal code that only mentally disabled women were entitled to a legal abortion if subjected to rape. The recent ruling, confirming that any rape victims are legally entitled to an abortion, is widely considered a victory for reproductive rights activists throughout Latin America. Despite this recent legal progress, in practice abortion remains the leading cause of maternal mortality in Argentina (Gogna, Romero, Ramos, Petracci and Szulik 2002; Guse 2010). With 40 percent of pregnancies illicitly aborted, this statistic poses a serious strain on Argentina’s health-care systems, and has an enormously negative impact on women’s health throughout the nation (Borland 2004; Guse 2010). While the legal status of abortion remains a topic of debate, the expansion of abortion rights in the wake of the recent change in the gay marriage law requires further investigation of the social climate for such a change. The recent legalization of gay marriage in conjunction with the continued push for abortion rights pose unique but comparable topics to study, as their societal approval or disapproval are both largely reflective of the intersection between religious and political attitudes. Polling in Argentina just months before the legalization of gay marriage showed a fairly even split of approval and disapproval for the legalization of gay marriage (Mallimaci 2008), while over half the population supports abortion in the cases currently provided for under the law (Romer 2010). Youth attitudes pose an understudied but important area of investigation, as they can suggest trends in the current role of religious institutions in shaping (or not shaping) a generation’s moral stance. The Catholic Church in Argentina: An Institution in Decline The Catholic Church has been a powerful institution in Argentine society throughout the country’s history and is inseparable from a study of attitudes towards moral politics, which Blofield (2006) defines as encompassing “issues at the core of our religious and ethical worldviews” (1). The Catholic Church defines abortion as homicide (Blofield 2006) and has been the most vocal institutional opponent to the recent legalization of gay marriage; therefore, a study of attitudes towards such topics requires attention to the influence of religious institutions on broader Argentine society as well as on individual attitudes. Throughout Argentine history, the political role of the Catholic Church has been central, particularly through the maintenance of longstanding ties to the elite classes. During the 1950s, it was one of the only institutions to avoid “Peronization” and served as a refuge to higher-class anti-Peronists and a symbol of resistance; factions from both ends of the political spectrum “rallied behind the Church” (Rock 1987: 318) against Perón. During this time period, the Catholic Church experienced an increase in institutional integration through its symbolic and real link to political powers. However, the Church’s position has not traditionally been one of alliance with the Argentine masses. Under the military dictatorship of 1976-1983, the Catholic Church supported the state, a move which alienated many Catholics. Notably, the domination of Catholicism waned in the second half of the 20th century as it lost support among the public, who sought new forms of “innovative political expression” (Levine 2009:123) to counter the strong ties between societal elites and the dominant institutions. Indeed, while the role of the Catholic Church in shaping attitudes towards moral debates such as abortion and gay marriage is deeply embedded in a traditional view of the family, current trends in Argentina suggest that the Catholic Church is an institution is in decline, as other religious institutions gain support among the public and take a more modernized approach to political issues such as gay marriage and abortion (Mallimaci and Béliveau 2007; Jones 2010). This trend bears particular weight on the study at hand as the Catholic Church has long been viewed as a central opponent to liberal-leaning policies such as the depenalization of abortion (Borland 2004). Following in the wake of the legalization of gay marriage, the fight for abortion rights in Argentina faces comparable obstacles of “a strong Catholic presence, unstable governments, and socially constructed gender norms” (Guse 2010:63). For this reason, TCNJ JOURNAL OF STUDENT SCHOLARSHIP VOLUME XV APRIL, 2013 -3a decline in influence of the Catholic Church on Argentine politics can bear weight on moral and political debates such as those on gay marriage and abortion. Despite longstanding Church and state ties in Latin America, Gonzalez (2010) found in a crossnational study of Latin American countries, there were no significant correlations between the strength of the Church in the country and existing civil union or gay marriage laws (302). Balivé (2005) argues that in particular “Argentines are increasingly willing to take God out of politics” (3), making policy changes that do not reflect the values traditionally upheld by the dominant religious institutions. Despite Catholicism’s continued religious majority in Argentina, changes in public policy such as the legalization of gay marriage and the opening of debates about abortion rights reflect the willingness of Argentine society to reexamine issues considered “taboo” by the Church (Balivé 2005). To this end, the women’s rights movement has led aggressive attacks on the Church’s abortion position which has contributed to the opening of societal discourse (Borland 2004). Along these lines, Petracci (2007) found in a survey conducted in the major cities in Argentina that 70% of respondents felt that the Catholic Church should take a more flexible position towards abortion, while similar discourse regarding gay marriage contributed to the 2010 legalization of gay marriage despite very public protest by the Catholic Church. As such, the decline of the Catholic Church as a religious institution with political power is reflected not only in the expansion of new and more progressive religious groups, but also in individual attitudes towards moral politics which do not align with traditional Church doctrine. RELIGION, RELIGIOUS ATTENDANCE, AND THE INDIVIDUAL The decline of the role of the Catholic Church in Argentine society has opened the door to processes of both secularization and religious diversification. While a 2008 study by Mallimaci, Esquivel and Irrazábal found that 76% of respondents reported being Catholic, 9 % Evangelical, and 11.3% atheist, agnostic or other, the same vast majority which reported belonging to the Catholic faith also reported infrequent to no attendance to religious gatherings. Argentina’s religious makeup is relatively diverse when compared to other Latin American countries, with the highest Jewish population in Latin America according to current statistics (Dellapergola 2010), and the fifth highest number of Protestant denominations after Chile, Mexico, Brazil and Haiti (Wilkie, Alemán and Ortega 2001). Mallimaci (2008) further suggests that laicism, or secularization on an institutional level, has lead to increased expression of more individualized religious beliefs outside of institutional contexts. Likewise, individual secularization poses a growing trend in the form of atheism, agnosticism or general disaffiliation with any religious institution, although Mallimaci (2008) proposes that this process and its consequences remain vastly understudied. On the other hand, the same study points to trends of membership expansion among other religions, leading to great pluralism and diversity among citizens in terms of religion. Evangelism in particular has seen a great increase in membership in Argentina in younger generations, with hybridized varieties gaining members particularly in the middle classes (Mallimaci 2008; Patterson 2004). Similarly, organizations such as Catholics for Choice have seen great expansion in recent years, supporting progressive political positions that counter traditional Church doctrine (Gallo 2011). These new religious institutions and organizations have been found to take diverse positions on issues of sexual morality, depending on their political orientation as more liberalor conservative-leaning (Jones 2010). Drawing on these dual processes of secularization and religious diversification, data presented by Mallimaci et al. (2008) points to deinstitutionalization of attitudes related to moral politics. Along these lines, Patterson (2004) suggests that basic demographics such as age and education have become better predictors of political attitudes than religion. As Argentina’s religious composition diversifies to include growing, more progressive-thinking sects as well as increasing populations not affiliated with any particular religious institution, individual attitudes towards gay marriage and abortion become important measures of the ways in which these broader institutional processes have a concrete impact on society and its individuals. Recent polling in Argentina on attitudes towards gay marriage show variation among religions and religious sects in terms of approval. Evangelicals in Argentina were significantly less likely to support same-sex marriage than all other religious groups, while atheists were the most likely to approve L. RUEDIGER: DEINSTITUTIONALIZATION AND YOUTH ATTITUDES -4(Germán and Corral 2010; Romer 2010). In one poll taken by La Nación, a leading Argentine newspaper, Catholics were more likely than Protestants to approve, with slightly under half approving (Romer 2010). This finding is interesting in light of the Catholic Church’s explicit disapproval of gay marriage, and reflects a disparity between individual members’ attitudes and the Church doctrine. Striking similarity in the breakdown of approval of abortion was found in polls taken in Buenos Aires by Mallimaci, Esquivel and Irrazábal (2008). A majority of Catholics approved of abortion under the special circumstances currently provided by law, and a significant percentage supported under any circumstances. A minority of Evangelicals approved of the current legal status, although a small but significant percentage also approved of abortion under any circumstances, reflective of the diversity of positions taken by different varieties of Evangelical institutions. This study suggests a general distancing from the dominant religious doctrine in regard to individual attitudes towards abortion similar to the process occurring regarding gay marriage. Likewise, a qualitative study by Petracci (2011) conducted among a sample of men in Buenos Aires found that non-religious men reported greater approval of depenalization of abortion. These findings support trends of secularization and its relationship with attitudes towards moral politics. While attitudes towards gay marriage and abortion certainly vary by religion or religious sect, studies have also shown that in general, strength of affiliation and religious attendance better predict attitudes towards moral politics regardless of the individual’s religion (Patterson 2004). These measures are pertinent to the study at hand as attendance or non-attendance of religious services reflects not only religiosity but degree of institutional involvement. With regard to same-sex marriage, religious attendance was found to have a significant negative impact on support for same-sex marriage, as were strong religious values (Germán and Corral 2010; Gaines and Gorand 2010). A similar, longitudinal study conducted in the U.S. (Olson, Cadge and Harrison 2006) found that Non-Protestants in the U.S., notably Roman Catholics, increased in likelihood to approve over time. Interestingly, religiosity was found to be a stronger predictor than basic demographics in this study as well as others (Besen and Zicklin 2007). These findings parallel trends in Argentina, and suggest that cross-national comparisons can be drawn. As for the relationship between religious attendance and abortion attitudes, Harris and Mills (1985) conducted a study among a large portion of the U.S. population that, while dated, merits mention here. These researchers used value conflict theory to argue that conflicting values of self-determination and responsibility towards others intervened in the relationship between religious attendance and attitudes towards abortion. They concluded that religion influences attitudes on abortion through a group-reinforced value of responsibility that is stronger among more frequent participants. While these findings can be extrapolated to Catholics in Argentina through exposure to the same Church doctrine, evidence from Argentina suggests that this relationship may not be so clear-cut. In a 1996 study in Argentina which touched on religion and attitudes towards abortion among Argentine females, Petracci (2004) found among Catholics with regular attendance to Church services, a minority reported the attitude that abortion is “incorrect” (36%)—however, this study does not present findings for infrequent or very frequent attendance. A study conducted among Argentine by Belden Russonello Strategists LLC (2011) among Argentine residents 18 and older living in large cities found significant differences in approval under any circumstances between those who attended Church weekly, and those who attended less frequently. Despite this significant finding, further exploration is needed on the relationship between religious attendance and attitudes towards abortion in Argentina as a potentially strong predictor of attitudes. In sum, individual attitudes towards gay marriage and abortion have been found to reflect processes of secularization as well as deinstitutionalization of individual attitudes despite continued membership. However, to thoroughly explore the relationship between religion, religious attendance and attitudes towards moral politics, a number of control variables must be explored which have been found to have an influence on said attitudes.