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Papers by Jocelyn Viterna

CNN, 2023

After the Texas Supreme court turned down 31-year-old Kate Cox’s appeal, she was essentially left... more After the Texas Supreme court turned down 31-year-old Kate Cox’s appeal, she was essentially left with two choices: she could carry her non-viable pregnancy to term, which her doctors say could threaten her future fertility andeven her life — or she could pay to leave Texas and seek an abortion elsewhere. My research in El Salvador demonstrates that Cox’s fears of health complications and lost fertility are well-founded, and that the nonsensical language of “natural death” hides a more sinister reality: that Texas has legalized the torture of pregnant women.

Women in War: The Micro-processes of Mobilization in El Salvador , Nov 21, 2013

AJOG Global Reports, 2023

BACKGROUND: A striking number of national and subnational governments that previously allowed leg... more BACKGROUND: A striking number of national and subnational governments that previously allowed legal abortion in cases of severe fetal anomaly have passed new legislation to explicitly remove these allowances. However, we know little about the maternal health implications of such restrictions.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine the health outcomes of pregnant individuals in El Salvador whose fetuses were diagnosed with a fatal congenital malformation and who were legally required to carry these nonviable pregnancies to term under the nation’s absolute abortion ban.
STUDY DESIGN: We reviewed the charts of all 239 pregnancies with fetuses classified as having 1 of 18 congenital malformations typically considered to be incompatible with extrauterine life that were evaluated at the National Women’s Hospital in El Salvador between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2018. Because regional healthcare providers who identify pregnancy complications in El Salvador are instructed to refer those patients to the National Women’s Hospital, our analysis captured the total population of lethal fetal malformations treated by the national public health system. We documented pregnant patients’ socioeconomic characteristics, pregnancy-related complications, and the medical procedures used to mitigate complications.
RESULTS: Individuals who were required to carry pregnancies with severe fetal malformations to term (or until preterm labor began naturally) experienced high rates of maternal morbidity. More than half (54.9%) of pregnancies experienced at least 1 serious pregnancy-related health complication, whereas 47.9% underwent a physically-invasive medical procedure to manage complications, including cesarean deliveries, decompression amniocenteses, fetal head decompressions, and, in 1 case, a full hysterectomy. A total of 9% of patients opted to discontinue care after receiving the diagnosis of fatal fetal malformation. We also found striking variation in how physicians managed pregnancies with fatal fetal malformations, suggesting that different interpretations of the law lead to inequities in individual-level patient care.
CONCLUSION: Laws prohibiting abortions in cases of severe fetal malformation can increase risks to pregnant patients by requiring clinicians to subject healthy patients to a course of treatment that generates morbidity.

American Journal of Sociology, 2009

... CB LP-28 CBC CCB CCE CCS CCTEM CDHES CEP CEPA CESPROP CGBE CGS CGTS CLS Comités de Barrios – ... more ... CB LP-28 CBC CCB CCE CCS CCTEM CDHES CEP CEPA CESPROP CGBE CGS CGTS CLS Comités de Barrios – LP-28 Victor Orlando Quintanilla (Neighborhood Committees – Popular Leagues 28th of February Victor Orlando Quintanilla) Christian Base Communities (see ...

American Journal of Sociology, 2005

... Widespread support among rural people for the leftist insurgency during the civil war in El S... more ... Widespread support among rural people for the leftist insurgency during the civil war in El Salvador challenges conventional ... Duke University Helen Milner Columbia University Frances Rosenbluth Yale University Susan Stokes University of Chicago Sidney Tarrow Cornell ...

American Journal of Sociology, 2007

Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 2016

What role do states and democracies play in develo ment, addressed this question fewe h d . p . A... more What role do states and democracies play in develo ment, addressed this question fewe h d . p . Although many scholars have ' r ave one so with respect to women I thi argue that renewed attention to the relati· hi b . n s chapter, we ons P etween states and erfully improve existin . 1 . women would powt t fun g soao ogical analyses of development We begin by defini h s a es are damentally gendered institutions and ho ng ow gender relations in the societi th ' w states both create and reproduce es ey govern. We then turn t th . states are valid sites of contestati ,._ . 0 e question of whether . . on ior empowenng and emanci atin examme this question across thr diffi . P g women. We ee erent categones of stat . W . European nations and develop· ti. es. estern nations, East ' mg na ons. We conclud th t f< · • the state would powerfully ext d . . th . e a a emrmst perspective of en exJsting eones about wheth d h . ence "development" Thi . . er an ow states infl...

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2022

With the recent wave of democratizationacross Eastern Europe, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Afri... more With the recent wave of democratizationacross Eastern Europe, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa, scholars have begun to explore how democratic changes affect women. Like other analyses of gender and the state

Dynamics of Political Violence, 2016

NACLA Report on the Americas, 2014

... Montgomery 1995; Pearce 1986). Consistent with its history, the state responded to this activ... more ... Montgomery 1995; Pearce 1986). Consistent with its history, the state responded to this activism with brutal repression, of which the 1980 assassination of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero became emblematic. In 1980, the ...

American Sociological Review, 2008

There is a rich collection of case studies examining the relationship between democratization, wo... more There is a rich collection of case studies examining the relationship between democratization, women's movements, and gendered state outcomes, but the variation across cases is still poorly understood. In response, this article develops a theoreticallygrounded comparative framework to evaluate and explain cross-national variations in the gendered outcomes of democratic transitions. The framework highlights four theoretical factors—the context of the transition, the legacy of women's previous mobilizations, political parties, and international influences—that together shape the political openings and ideologies available to women's movements in transitional states. Applying the framework to four test cases, we conclude that women's movements are most effective at targeting democratizing states when transitions are complete, when women's movements develop cohesive coalitions, when the ideology behind the transition (rather than the ideology of the winning regime) a...

American Journal of Sociology, 2006