Abstract

GARCIA MARTIN, Joseba  and  PERUGORRIA, Ignacia. Transnational Anti-Rights Networks: Mobilization Against Euthanasia in Spain and Latin America. rev.estud.soc. [online]. 2025, n.94, pp.165-183.  Epub Oct 28, 2025. ISSN 0123-885X.  https://doi.org/10.7440/res94.2025.09.

This study contributes to the literature on far-right social movements by examining an actor that has been little explored but holds significant international relevance in shaping positions and discourses against moral policies-from divorce and abortion to assisted reproduction and the rights of LGTBIQ+ communities. It analyzes the transnational anti-rights networks formed between secular organizations of Catholic inspiration and neoconservative ideology (OLIC-N) in Spain and Latin America. The focus is on anti-euthanasia mobilization, a practice legalized in 15 of 195 countries, including Spain, Colombia, and Ecuador. Despite broad social support, euthanasia remains subject to a clear “political blockade” worldwide; its legalization is thus the “new frontier” for progressive governments and organizations advocating for the right to die with dignity. Drawing on a theoretical framework that combines sociology of religion and social movement studies, and based on a multi-method qualitative design integrating netnographic and secondary data analysis, the article examines the repertoires and interpretive frames of moderate and radical Spanish OLIC-N actors; the roles of religious and anti-rights political organizations in opposing Spain’s Euthanasia Law; and the diffusion and reappropriation of behavioral and ideational elements by OLIC-N in Latin America, where social and parliamentary debates on legalization are beginning to emerge. This is the first study to analyze transnational anti-rights networks, providing empirical evidence on their configuration and their capacity for strategic adaptation across diverse yet interconnected sociopolitical contexts.

Keywords : anti-rights field; euthanasia; far right; moral policies; neoconservatism; social movements.

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