God and the Government: Women, Religion, and Reproduction in Nicaragua

The context of this paper is my long-term research project analyzing the role of Catholicism in contemporary Nicaragua in defining women, women ́s roles, and their rights, especially reproductive rights. I am looking at the role of the Catholic Church as an institution in national policies in Nicaragua and its influence on the country ́s international policies, especially in the context of the most recent UN conferences on population, development, and women. I will speak to the Nicaragua context directly, but I start with a lengthy discussion on the complicated relationship between feminist studies and religious studies, which has relevance not only to my case study but also to Latin American feminist studies in general.