Belén review – gripping true story of woman unjustly accused of illegal abortion

In Argentina a lawyer fights to free a working-class woman jailed after the miscarriage of her baby in this heartfelt retelling

Cath Clarke
Wed 5 Nov 2025

Belén is a pseudonym; in 2014, a 25-year-old woman arrived at a hospital in Argentina with severe abdominal pain that turned out to be a miscarriage. She had no idea she was 22 weeks pregnant, but doctors suspected she had had an abortion, then illegal in Argentina, and called the police. Belén was charged with aggravated homicide and sentenced to eight years in prison. When her case was taken up by feminist lawyer Soledad Deza it sparked protests, thousands taking to the streets in green scarves. This heartfelt drama tells the story, mostly from the perspective of lawyer Deza (played by the film’s director Dolores Fonzi).

It begins in the hospital. The doctor in charge barely bothers to look up at Belén from his clipboard – she is a poor working-class woman and this will determine her fate. After a foetus is found in the hospital toilet, police arrive, handcuffing Belén to her bed. They do not carry out DNA tests on the foetus, so there is no physical evidence – a fact not raised by the blood-boilingly lazy defence at her trial.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/nov/05/belen-review-gripping-true-story-of-woman-unjustly-accused-of-abortion

05.11.2025

Reproductive Rights, Abortion Access Under Threat in Argentina

Rollback of Abortion and Reproductive Health Programs Undermines Women’s and Girls’ Rights

September 26, 2025
Stephanie Lustig, Research Assistant, Women’s Rights Division – Human Rights Watch

Since taking office in December 2023, Argentina’s President Javier Milei and his government have dismantled key sexual and reproductive health protections.

A report published this week by the Center for State and Society Studies (CEDES) shows that harmful rhetoric from Milei on abortion creates “a climate of risk and uncertainty,” causing misinformation and confusion for pregnant people on whether they can access abortion services, disrupting care, and affecting health professionals’ safety.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/09/26/reproductive-rights-abortion-access-under-threat-in-argentina

Protecting the right to abortion: An interview with Fernanda Doz Costa

Fernanda Doz Costa trained as a human rights lawyer in Argentina before becoming Amnesty International’s Director of Gender, Racial Justice and Refugee Rights.

26 September 2025
Amnesty International

To mark International Safe Abortion Day, Fernanda talks about the dangers of unsafe abortions, some of the people she’s supported along the way and the small and easy actions you can take to ensure people around the world can access safe abortions.

Can you tell me about your role at Amnesty and what led you to it?
I lead Amnesty International’s work on gender, racial justice and refugee rights. My journey into this role was shaped by my experience growing up in Argentina during the dictatorship and being an activist during my law school years, advocating for social justice and human rights.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2025/09/protecting-the-right-to-abortion-an-interview-with-fernanda-doz-costa/

26.09.2025

Commentary

Amnesty International

International Safe Abortion Day

Oscars: Argentina Submits Abortion Drama ‘Belén’ For Best International Feature Film Race

By Zac Ntim
September 25, 2025

Dolores Fonzi’s San Sebastian Competition title Belén has been submitted as Argentina’s entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 98th annual Academy Awards.

Based on a true story, the film tells the story of a young woman who is admitted to a hospital with severe abdominal pain, unaware she is pregnant. She wakes up handcuffed to a gurney and surrounded by police. She is accused of having self-induced an abortion and, after two years in detention, is sentenced to eight years in prison for aggravated homicide. A female lawyer from Tucumán fights for her freedom with the support of thousands of women and organizations.

Continued: https://deadline.com/2025/09/argentina-oscar-entry-belen-abortion-drama-dolores-fonzi-1236555661/

25.09.2025

Argentina – ‘Belén’ review: solid political filmmaking of an iconic feminist case

Based on true events, Dolores Fonzi’s second film is a well-crafted and timely vindication of activism

Agustín Mango, Buenos Aires Herald
September 21, 2025

A young woman named Julieta stumbles one night of 2014 into an emergency room in Tucumán with excruciating abdominal pain. The camera follows her closely as a nurse and a violent night-shift doctor dismiss her problems, a nightmarish sequence shot that ends with Julieta handcuffed to the operating table and facing a small cardboard box with a dead fetus in it.

‘This was your child,’ a policewoman scolds her. Terrified and sobbing, Julieta denies she was ever pregnant, and only manages to beg the police and call for her mom.

The harrowing opening scene of Belén is a raw depiction of obstetric violence and police abuse. It is also a clear step-up in Dolores Fonzi’s directorial skills in her second film, a solid retelling of a real-life case that became a landmark for the Argentine women’s movement.

Continued: https://buenosairesherald.com/culture-ideas/film-series/belen-review-solid-political-filmmaking-of-an-iconic-feminist-case

Argentine film on landmark abortion case to compete in San Sebastian

Belén focuses on the real story of a woman who went to jail accused of an illegal abortion after suffering a miscarriage

Buenos Aires Herald
August 21, 2025

In 2014, a young woman in Tucumán went to an emergency room seeking treatment for intense vaginal bleeding. She began having contractions, with studies confirming she was in the midst of a 20-week pregnancy she was unaware of. The woman, who came to be known as Belén (her real name was never made public), would eventually suffer a miscarriage.

Given that abortion in Argentina was illegal at the time, she was reported to the police and charged with first-degree murder. She would spend years in jail immersed in a struggle to prove her innocence.

Continued: https://buenosairesherald.com/culture-ideas/argentine-film-on-landmark-abortion-case-to-compete-in-san-sebastian

21.08.2025

Film, Art, Books

Amnesty International

San Sebastián Film Festival

Amnesty records sharp increase in abortion ‘obstacles’ in Argentina

The NGO listed misinformation, a lack of medical supplies, and aggressive behavior by medical staff as some of the key barriers

Christopher Martin
May 29, 2025

Amnesty International offered a damning assessment of the situation of sexual and reproductive rights for women and girls in Argentina.

In a recent report titled “It’s Also for You: Defending Access to Abortion in the Face of Public Policy Rollbacks,” the human rights organization conducted a field study of the situation women and girls face when trying to access legal abortion. Among the key obstacles they face, the report highlighted five main barriers: …

Continued: https://buenosairesherald.com/society/amnesty-records-sharp-increase-in-abortion-obstacles-in-argentina

29.05.2025

Amnesty International

It’s Also for You: Defending Access to Abortion in the Face of Public Policy Rollbacks

Argentina used as a ‘testing ground’ for eroding abortion rights, warns Amnesty

Alarm as Javier Milei’s government curbs state supply of abortion pills and seeks to reverse landmark legalization

Harriet Barber in Tucumán
Wed 28 May 2025

Argentina is being used as a “testing ground” for stripping back abortion rights internationally as it cuts funding for contraceptives and ends the distribution of abortion pills, Amnesty International warned on Wednesday.

Before the inauguration of President Javier Milei in December 2023, the state bought abortion pills, which were then distributed for free through the public health system.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/may/28/argentina-womens-rights-javier-milei-testing-ground-eroding-abortion-rights-seek-reverse-landmark-legalisation-warning-amnesty

Eva Barrionuevo, a doctor on the frontlines in Argentina: ‘We know that abortion rights don’t last forever and we will have to fight for them’

The physician says misinformation, pharmaceutical shortages and peer intimidation are on the rise during Javier Milei’s presidency

Mar Centenera
Buenos Aires - MAR 11, 2025

Doctor Eva Barrionuevo, 39, says there are women in her northeastern Argentinian province of La Rioja who think abortion is no longer legal. Women who believe that it has been banned by President Javier Milei, because they heard him equate the voluntary termination of pregnancy with “aggravated murder.” That they are coming to her hospital later and later in their pregnancies, some of them already in their second trimester, due to a lack of information. That they have once again turned to the clandestine drugs that were widely used before abortion was legal, which are less effective and more dangerous than those distributed free of charge by today’s healthcare system. Every day, Barrionuevo fights back against these misconceptions and the growing fear among her fellow doctors who also accompany voluntary pregnancy terminations. It is her mission to guarantee a woman’s right to decide whether she will become a mother, a right that was officially won at the end of 2020 in her country, but is now at risk.

Continued: https://english.elpais.com/international/women-leaders-of-latin-america/2025-03-11/eva-barrionuevo-a-doctor-on-the-frontlines-in-argentina-we-know-that-abortion-rights-dont-last-forever-and-we-will-have-to-fight-for-them.html

11.03.2025

Commentary

belief-based care denial

Catholic Church

conscientious objectors

Dr. Eva Barrionuevo

Javier Milei

manual vacuum aspiration

Network of Professionals for the Right to Choose

Argentina – Abortion access under threat amid ‘chainsaw’ cuts

Buenos Aires Times
March 7, 2025

Four years after Argentina became the first big Latin American country to legalise abortion, women are finding it hard to access terminations due to President Javier Milei's "chainsaw" economics and anti-feminist diatribes, critics say.

At a women's sexual health NGO in the town of Chivilcoy, 160 kilometres (about 100 miles) west of Buenos Aires, abortion pills are handed out sparingly because of reduced state-sponsored supplies.

Each week, about 15 women in Chivilcoy request misoprostol and mifepristone – two medications used to end pregnancy – but some now leave empty-handed, Cecilia Robledo, a local counselor who runs the organisation, told AFP by telephone.

Continued: https://batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/abortion-access-under-threat-amid-chainsaw-cuts.phtml