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

03.11.2022

Featured

Interviews/Podcasts

Camila Valle

Commission for the Right to Abortion

Dora Coledesky

Historia de una desobediencia: Aborto y feminismo

Mabel Belluci

National Campaign for the Right to Legal Safe and Free Abortion

The Fight for Abortion and Reproductive Justice after Roe

SUNDAY 16 OCTOBER 2022
BY CAMILA VALLE, EMILY JANAKIRAM, HOLLY LEWIS, SHERRY WOLF

Spectre Journal (USA) recently hosted an event for donors about global lessons for the struggle for abortion rights and reproductive justice after the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. The panel included Camila Valle, Sherry Wolf, Emily Janakiram, and Holly Lewis. This is an edited transcript of their speeches and wrap ups after the discussion.

Camila Valle: I know people are probably thinking about what just happened to our right to abortion and reproductive healthcare in the US, which other speakers will go into tonight, but I wanted to start with a historic victory in a different part of the world: that of the Argentinian abortion movement, which won legalization at the end of 2020—and not just legalization, but free abortion as part of their socialized healthcare system.

Continued: https://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article7850

How will laws against abortion be enforced? Other countries offer chilling examples

In Argentina, midwives were prosecuted. In Brazil, clinics were raided. In Rwanda, hundreds of women went to jail

By GILLIAN KANE
MAY 25, 2022

Within the next month it is very likely the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade and eliminate the federal constitutional right to an abortion. When that happens, dormant trigger laws in many states will immediately go into effect and abortion will become a crime. Because abortion will be regulated at the state level, enforcement and penalties will vary greatly. Kentucky, South Dakota, North Dakota, Tennessee, South Carolina and Missouri are just some of the states that would make providing an abortion a felony, with penalties including jail time up to 20 years. Other states, too impatient to wait for the court decision, have already moved to increase penalties for either having or providing an abortion. Louisiana attempted to classify abortion as a homicide, although lawmakers there have since walked back the effort. Texas is uniquely punitive, criminalizing abortion after six weeks and incentivizing enforcement through the private sector by offering bounties of $10,000 cash to deputized ordinary citizens who can sue anyone involved in providing an abortion.

Continued: https://www.salon.com/2022/05/25/how-will-laws-against-abortion-be-enforced-other-countries-offer-chilling-examples/

What The Green Scarf Means In The Fight For Reproductive Rights

FRANCES SOLÁ-SANTIAGO
MAY 17, 2022

When a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion in early May revealed that Rove v. Wade will likely be overturned, protests broke out across the country, as activists pushed for lawmakers to codify the landmark decision that protected a pregnant person’s right to choose abortion via the Women’s Health Protection Act. Over the weekend, the New York chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America held a march and called on all the attendees to wear green and “bring your green bandana.” Similar protests were held in cities like Miami and Washington, D.C., where many attendees likewise sported green scarves on their wrists and necks.

While the green scarf may be the new symbol of the pro-abortion fight in the U.S, it's been around for at least a decade. In fact, it emerged in Argentina in the late 2010s, as the country’s activists fought to decriminalize abortion in a sweeping movement that earned them the title “Marea Verde” or “Green Wave.”

Continued: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2022/05/10978997/green-scarf-meaning-roe-v-wade-protests

Abortion rights activists in the US can learn from recent progress on abortion access in Latin America

Analysis by Stefano Pozzebon, CNN
Sat May 7, 2022

Bogota, Colombia (CNN)The prospect of the United States overturning decades of abortion rights, which materialized this week in a leaked draft opinion by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, triggered shock waves in many countries in Latin America, where many feminist organizations have often looked at the US as a model of greater reproductive rights and freedoms.

However, that model has flipped on its head in recent years. Just as several US states have put in place further barriers to abortion access through various restrictions, some countries in Latin America have moved in the other direction, with a growing number of countries liberalizing such laws.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/07/americas/abortion-analysis-latin-america-activists-intl-latam/index.html

How Latin American women are winning the battle for abortion rights

Argentina, Colombia and Mexico have recently legalised or decriminalised abortion. Could Chile be next?

Diana Cariboni
29 April 2022

It was inconceivable, just five years ago, that ultra-conservative Colombia would decriminalise abortion, or that Catholic, neoliberal Chile would be gearing up to vote on a new constitution that enshrines sexual and reproductive rights, including on-request abortion.

Yet in February, Colombia’s constitutional court removed abortion (up to 24 weeks) from the criminal code in response to a court case brought by Causa Justa – the spearhead of a wide-ranging social and legal campaign of more than 120 groups and thousands of activists.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/women-latin-america-winning-abortion-rights/

‘It’s crazy’: the doctor who faces jail in Argentina for giving a legal abortion

Abortion was legalised in 2020, but the charges brought against Miranda Ruiz show the battle for reproductive rights is not over

Natalie Alcoba in Buenos Aires
Tue 19 Apr 2022

Doctor Miranda Ruiz went to work one Friday in September knowing she was likely to be arrested.

The prosecutor of Tartagal, a city in Argentina’s province of Salta, had announced his intentions the day before: that Ruiz, 34, would be detained for administering an abortion – in a country that had legalised the procedure less than a year earlier.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/apr/19/doctor-faces-jail-in-argentina-legal-abortion-miranda-ruiz

As the US continues to pass extreme abortion bans, Latin American countries legalize access

Published March 10, 2022
Podcast: 51:56 minutes

On this edition of Your Call, we'll discuss the continued attacks on abortion and the very real possibility that Roe could be overturned in the United States. If that happens, 26 states would ban most or all abortions, including Idaho, Louisiana, Utah, and Ohio.

As extreme bans continue to pass in the US, Columbia, Argentina, and Mexico are moving forward by legalizing or decriminalizing abortion. It's taken decades of grassroots activism. We'll find out how they did it.

Guests:
Shefali Luthra, reporter for The 19th, covering health policy and gender
Giselle Carino, chief executive of Fos Feminista, an alliance of more than 135 organizations worldwide advancing sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice for women, girls, and gender diverse people through healthcare and activism

Continued: https://www.kalw.org/show/your-call/2022-03-10/as-the-us-continues-to-pass-extreme-abortion-bans-latin-american-countries-legalize-access