The Politics of Camouflage: Conscientious objection as a strategy of the catholic church

Abstract

Conscientious Objection (CO) has a definition, a genealogy, and a normative use in liberal democracies. It has an official history, so to speak, which vindicates it as a democratic institution that guarantees people the right not to fulfill certain legal obligations considered contrary to certain beliefs (religious as much as secular). This article considers how the advance of the sexual and reproductive rights agenda has generated a growing politicization of CO as a democratic institution that guarantees the pluralism of contemporary societies. Thus, different sectors deploy CO as a way to protect religious freedom from legislation seeking to dismount inequalities entwined with hierarchical sexual orders.