USA – ’Abject failure’: Abortion rights movement fractures over post-Roe future

By James Oliphant

WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) - Badly stung by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on Friday, the abortion rights movement finds itself splintered, demoralized and faced with a startling landscape in which the procedure may be outlawed in half the country.

Angry grassroots activists are calling past efforts an “abject failure." They say national abortion rights advocacy groups were so consumed with winning federal elections they allowed conservatives to chip away at abortion rights through state-level legislation over decades.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/abject-failure-abortion-rights-movement-fractures-over-post-roe-future-2022-06-24/


Activists on the horror of Poland’s near-total abortion ban

Despite mass protests, global criticism, and already strict abortion laws, the country’s government has rolled back women’s rights even further

1 February 2021
Brit Dawson

Women in Poland right now face the most significant rollbacks on fundamental rights in recent history. Last week (January 27), the country’s right wing government moved to implement a near-total ban on abortion, despite the ruling sparking mass protests and global criticism when it was first declared three months ago.

Pro-choice activists immediately took to the streets and social media, leading the biggest protests in the country’s recent history. In November, after almost two weeks of demonstrations, the government announced that it was delaying the abortion ban. Now, however, it’s been enforced with immediate effect.

Continued: https://www.dazeddigital.com/politics/article/51808/1/activists-on-the-horror-of-poland-near-total-abortion-ban


Argentina legalized abortion. Here’s how it happened and what it means for Latin America.

Abortion rights advocates focused on public health consequences of prohibition and disproportionate impact on women in poverty

By Taylor Boas, Mariela Daby, Mason Moseley and Amy Erica Smith
Jan. 18, 2021

Early on Dec. 30, Argentina became only the second democratic country in Latin America to legalize abortion. The Senate’s 38-to-29 vote on a bill passed by the legislature’s lower house was celebrated by masses of green-clad activists in the streets of Buenos Aires. In recent years, these activists have been mobilizing in larger and larger numbers for reproductive rights.

Abortion legalization failed in 2018. What changed?
In 2018, a similar bill was passed by Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies but came up short in the Senate. By 2020, advocates for legalization had President Alberto Fernández on their side; Fernández had defeated antiabortion incumbent President Mauricio Macri in 2019.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/18/argentina-legalized-abortion-heres-how-it-happened-what-it-means-latin-america/


How Argentina broke the mould on abortion

Years of campaigning for women’s rights and against domestic violence have paid off and other countries in the region could now follow suit, Lucinda Elliott writes

Lucinda Elliott
Wednesday January 06 2021

Graça, a 24-year-old Brazilian medical student, is booked on a flight to Argentina this week to have an abortion. Nearly ten weeks pregnant, she has secured a procedure in Buenos Aires, the Argentine capital, more than 1,800 miles away from Minas Gerais state university, where she is studying for a degree.

For Graça, neither supporting a baby nor having a legal termination is a viable option in Brazil, where the draconian abortion law dates back to 1940. She is on a scholarship and to make some money for the journey she has been baking and selling cupcakes.

Continued: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-argentina-broke-the-mould-on-abortion-wr70khksj


Feminist ‘green tide’ delivers legal abortion in Argentina

Argentina’s “marea verde” has helped deliver sweeping abortion reform in one of Latin America’s most Catholic countries.

Jan 2, 2021

As the result of the Senate vote on the government’s abortion bill was announced, the huge crowd of campaigners gathered outside Congress erupted into joy.

Among the cheers and tears, almost all the demonstrators were clad in green clothing – most notably the now-famous headscarf that’s been worn permanently by thousands of people across the country, demanding legal, safe and free abortion in Argentina.

Continued: https://batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/feminist-green-tide-delivers-legal-abortion-in-argentina.phtml


‘Down with patriarchy, long live feminism’: How demonstrations led to Argentina legalising abortion

What really kicked off the movement was the brutal murders of women in 2015, including a 14-year-old pregnant girl, and led to the creation of the Ni Una Menos (Not One Woman Less) movement, which began highlighting the struggle Argentine women faced in getting underground abortions.

Updated: Jan 02, 2021
hindustantimes.com | Edited by Nilavro Ghosh

Argentina has become the largest South American nation to legalise abortion after massive demonstrations across the country by pro-abortion activists, who had seen several bills about the issue rejected until now. December 30 saw one of the most important moments in Argentina’s history when after more than 12 hours of debate, the Catholic church influenced government passed the law, which legalises abortion allowing terminations up to 14 weeks of pregnancy.

“We managed to break the prejudice, and the discussion became a lot less dramatic. Society at large started to understand the debate in more moderate, less fanatic terms,” Lucila Crexell, a senator, was quoted by the New York Times.

Continued: https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/down-with-patriarchy-long-live-feminism-how-demonstrations-led-to-argentina-legalising-abortion/story-KldI91DjS1SwbmiSdDCYBK.html


Photos Capture Historic Celebrations in Argentina After Abortion Legalized

Amanda Cotrim’s photographs document the thousands of abortion rights advocates who erupted into festivities throughout Buenos Aires on the day of the vote.

by Valentina Di Liscia
December 31, 2020

Yesterday, December 30, Argentina became the largest country in Latin America to legalize abortion. After 12 hours of debate — and a grueling decades-long battle between the nation’s progressive and conservative factions — the bill was approved in the Senate by a vote of 38 to 29.

Abortion rights advocates gathered outside the National Congress in Buenos Aires. In anticipation of the momentous decision, they erupted into city-wide festivities, flaunting bright green scarves and face paint to show their support for reproductive rights. The emerald hue has become emblematic of the pro-choice movement in Argentina, where tens of thousands of women suffer adverse health effects from a lack of access to safe abortions, particularly those from low-income backgrounds and rural areas. In 2016, 39,025 women were admitted to public hospitals for complications arising from clandestine abortions, 6,400 of whom were girls and teenagers aged 10 to 19.

Continued: https://hyperallergic.com/611817/photos-capture-strength-and-tenderness-of-historic-celebrations-in-argentina-after-abortion-legalized/


Argentines on abortion legalisation: ‘I felt relieved’

Dec 31, 2020

The legalisation of abortion up to the 14th week of pregnancy in Argentina on Wednesday triggered emotional scenes outside the Congress building in Buenos Aires.

Pro-choice activists embraced and cheered while waving the green handkerchiefs which have become symbolic of their decades-long fight for free and legal abortions to be made available to women across the country.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-55497410


Women perform in favor of abortion before Mexican cathedral


Women perform in favor of abortion before Mexican cathedral

Published January 6, 2020
By the Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — A dozen women wearing green scarves lined up in front the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City’s central square on Sunday to call for legal and safe abortions throughout Mexico.

Abortion is highly restricted in the country of 120 million inhabitants, with the exception of the capital Mexico City and the southern state of Oaxaca, where the procedure is allowed up to 12 weeks of gestation.

To the sound of a metal spoon clanking against an iron frying pan, the women performed a variation of “A Rapist in Your Path” — the viral dance sequence concocted by the Chilean feminist collective La Tesis to protest violence against women. The moves are the same, but the words have changed; in this version, an “objector” stands in their path.

Continued: https://news.mb.com.ph/2020/01/06/women-perform-in-favor-of-abortion-before-mexican-cathedral/


Undaunted by Senate Loss, Argentine Abortion Advocates Forge New Tactics, Coalitions

Undaunted by Senate Loss, Argentine Abortion Advocates Forge New Tactics, Coalitions
Activists who want church-state separation are staging public withdrawals from the Catholic Church, a new web tool uses emojis to pinpoint legislators' abortion stance, and the fight to change the law may advance the case for sex education.

Aug 28, 2018
Carla McKirdy

On August 9, Argentina’s Senate rejected a bill that would have legalized abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.

Instead of feeling downtrodden, pro-choice activists are retooling and finding ingenious ways to keep the abortion issue at the forefront. From staging public renunciations of the Catholic Church, deploying social media to hold anti-abortion legislators accountable, and using the debate to advance comprehensive sexual education, they are making lemonade from the defeat.

Continued: https://rewire.news/article/2018/08/28/undaunted-by-senate-loss-argentine-abortion-advocates/