‘We are fighting for the girls who come after us’: abortion rights at risk in Argentina election

Argentina’s presidential frontrunner, Javier Milei, is threatening to outlaw the abortion rights only won three years ago

Harriet Barber in Buenos Aires
Mon 2 Oct 2023

“We are fighting against the presidential candidates who threaten the rights of women,” says Marilyna, 28, standing hand in hand with her friend outside Argentina’s National Congress last Thursday evening.

Argentina is three weeks away from a national election in which the rights of women and abortion have been put on the ballot, just three years after elective terminations were legalised. Marilyna is one of thousands of women, men and children protesting on the streets of Buenos Aires.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/oct/02/abortion-rights-at-risk-in-argentina-election


Americas: Brazil can become the next country to step up to guarantee the right to abortion

Amnesty International
September 28, 2023

To mark International Safe Abortion Day on 28 September, Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International, said:

“Despite the green wave’s numerous victories in the Americas over the last few years, the rights gained and the opportunities to expand abortion protections are under attack by anti-rights actors. The overturning of Roe v. Wade in the United States last year was a wakeup call for the movement, reminding us once more that the fight to defend and expand our rights must be ongoing.”

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/09/americas-brazil-right-to-safe-abortions/


Women across Argentina march in defence of abortion rights.

Sep 29, 2023

Thousands marched downtown on Thursday to defend the legalisation of abortion, which "is in danger," according to the demonstrators, if the far right candidate Javier Milei wins the presidential elections next month.

Most of the marchers, including feminist activists and trade union leaders, wore green, the symbolic colour of the struggle for the legalisation of abortion.

Continued: https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/women-across-argentina-march-in-defence-of-abortion-rights.phtml


Demonstrators across Latin America demand abortion rights

September 28, 2023

Americas Desk, Sep 28 (EFE).- The Day for Decriminalization and Legalization of Abortion drew demonstrations all over Latin America on Thursday to address a lack of protection in countries such as El Salvador, fear of losing rights in Argentina, intense political debates in Brazil and progress in Mexico.

In El Salvador, activists from the Feminist Assembly denounced the total criminalization of abortion as the “greatest expression of violence” against women, who can be accused of aggravated homicide and sentenced to 30 years in prison, even in cases of miscarriage.

Continued : https://www.laprensalatina.com/demonstrators-across-latin-america-demand-abortion-rights/


Thousands of women march in Latin American cities calling for abortion rights

By Megan Janetsky & Debora Rey, The Associated Press
Sep 28, 2023

MEXICO CITY — The streets of cities across Latin America were bathed in green Thursday as tens of thousands of women marched to commemorate International Safe Abortion Day.

Latin American feminists have spent decades fighting to roll back strict prohibitions, although there are still few countries with a total ban, like El Salvador and Dominican Republic.

Continued: https://toronto.citynews.ca/2023/09/28/thousands-of-women-march-in-latin-american-cities-calling-for-abortion-rights/


Winning the right to abortion: the revolution of Latin American women

When Roe v. Wade was repealed in the United States, decades of progress in the struggle for reproductive rights were threatened. But across the Western Hemisphere, the tide has recently been in favor of the right to choose, with the decriminalization of abortion in Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico

Beatriz Guillén
SEP 10, 2023

Simone de Beauvoir once said: “Never forget that a political, economic or religious crisis will be enough for women’s rights to be questioned again. These rights are never to be taken for granted; you must remain vigilant throughout your life.” It was an omen. Such a situation occurred in June 2022, when the United States Supreme Court repealed the right to abortion in the country, 50 years after it was encoded into law.

The repeal of Roe v. Wade proved that changes in political or judicial power could put past victories into jeopardy. It dealt a blow to the decades of struggle; however, it failed to stem the tide throughout the Western Hemisphere. In Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico, the justice systems have recently decriminalized the interruption of a pregnancy at the federal level. These rulings have emerged as beacons of hope in the defense of women’s reproductive rights in the Americas.

Continued: https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-09-10/winning-the-right-to-abortion-the-revolution-of-latin-american-women.html


Misoprostol Alone Safely Ends Pregnancies After 10 Weeks, Study Suggests

Most women who took abortion drugs were successful even at later gestation periods, researchers reported. Many used only misoprostol, not the usual two-drug combination.

By Roni Caryn Rabin
July 6, 2023

An overwhelming majority of women were able to end unwanted pregnancies with abortion medications on their own and without additional medical procedures, even if they were well beyond the first trimester, according to a report published on Thursday.

The study was based on the experiences of 264 women who were nine to 16 weeks pregnant in Argentina, Nigeria and an unnamed country in Southeast Asia where abortion is illegal. Almost half of the women took only one drug, misoprostol, instead of the standard two-drug regimen, mifepristone and misoprostol.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/06/health/abortion-misoprostol.html


Abortion may be legal in Argentina but women still face major obstacles

Mar 4, 2023
By Agustina Latourrette, BBC World Service

María was 23 when she decided to have an abortion. At the health centre where she had gone for treatment, she says she overheard one doctor saying to a colleague: "When will these girls learn to keep their legs closed?"

María lives in Salta, a religiously conservative province in north-west Argentina, where many healthcare workers are still against abortion. She was eventually given a pill to end her pregnancy, but she says the nurses were reluctant to treat her and wanted to make her feel guilty: "After I expelled the pregnancy tissue, I could see the foetus."

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-64784660


Argentina – She had a miscarriage. Now she’s facing life in prison

By Natalie Alcoba
December 12, 2022

One morning in December 2020, La China* was overcome with abdominal cramps. She has polycystic ovary syndrome and has often suffered severe pain and irregular, heavy periods. The condition was a reason why she hadn’t realised she was pregnant until after eight months with her first child, and until after six months with the second.

That morning, in intense pain, the 43-year-old Venezuelan, who lives in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, took some painkillers and went to bed. But she began bleeding profusely. What happened next is disputed.

Continued: https://bhekisisa.org/features/2022-12-12-she-had-a-miscarriage-now-shes-facing-life-in-prison/


Argentina – Abortion: a pillar of a broad pro-democracy and human rights coalition

THURSDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2022
BY CAMILA VALLE, MABEL BELLUCCI

I received Mabel Belluci’s 2014 book Historia de una desobediencia: Aborto y feminismo (History of a Disobedience: Abortion and Feminism) for Christmas four years ago. As an Argentinian reproductive justice organizer in the United States, I found their account of the abortion movement in Argentina to be a stunning product of a life within the struggle—remarkable in particular for its interest in the often messy shifts, splits, reformations, and moments of unity that go into building a movement. Reading it brought to the fore the value and potential of independent feminist historiography: of history told by us and for us, consciously situated as the continuation of a long political lineage.

I spoke with Belluci about the Argentinian abortion movement’s confrontational tactics, its path to building a broad coalition, and the lessons for Argentinian feminists in the broad rollback of abortion rights in the US. -  Camila Valle.

Continued: https://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article7868