Dios, Patria, y Media Libertad: Religious Discourse, Protection, and Gender in Nationalist Lawmaking

Abstract: How does religious language shape security, who must be secured or protected, and who is excluded or sacrificed? Applying discourse analysis, I present Divine Protection, Reproductive Protection, and Guardian Protection as conceptual maps to analyze religious discourse used by legislators in the Dominican Republic to justify their voting towards a national abortion ban. I argue that religious language operates as a legitimizing tool used by state legislators to produce and reproduce meanings of security, protection, and gender. Additionally, I argue that religious discourse used in arguments of reproductive protection frames women as necessary subjects to control for the execution of national security agendas, such as the reproduction of the nation and moral order. This instrumentalization of women produces a gendered hierarchy in which women's autonomy and safety are being overlooked, limited, and compromised to protect the national identity and the nation's morality by keeping strict reproductive health restrictions.