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/

Argentina Legalizes Abortion

The Organization for World Peace
January 4, 2021
by Catherine Kreider

Argentina entered the new year with the national legalization of abortion, making it the sixth and most populace Latin American country to decriminalize pregnancy termination. Argentina joined the relatively small group of pro-abortion countries in the primarily Catholic region of the world, abolishing section 86 of its 1921 criminal code that only allowed for legal abortions in the case of rape and if the pregnancy was health risk-averse to the mother. As Pope Francis’s birthplace, Argentina’s transition towards legalizing abortion marks a significant societal shift within Latin America towards expanding women’s reproductive rights. The 1 January 2021 vote to legalize abortion followed years of campaigning by woman’s rights groups, with the movement for legal abortion becoming particularly widespread throughout the country after a series of brutal femicides, including the murder of a 14-year-old pregnant girl in 2015.

Continued: https://theowp.org/reports/argentina-legalizes-abortion/

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

31.12.2020

Carmen Dolores Piñeiro

Pro-choice activists discuss Argentina’s historic abortion bill

The groundbreaking bill, which would legalise abortion up to 14 weeks, was passed by the country’s lower house earlier this month, and is now in its final stages

27 December 2020
Thom Waite

In the early hours of December 11, Argentina’s lower house passed a landmark abortion bill, submitted by the country’s left-wing president, Alberto Fernández. Pro-choice activists, wearing a sea of green – a symbol for women’s rights and the pro-choice campaign – had gathered outside congress to await the verdict. When the bill passed with 131 to 117 votes at the end of a 20-hour debate, their reaction, and that of supporters watching the televised announcement countrywide, has been described as a “tsunami of joy”.

“I was with two of my best friends,” Dana, one 24-year-old activist from Argentina, tells Dazed. “I didn’t sleep all night and we cried happy tears when we saw the results.”

Continued: https://www.dazeddigital.com/politics/article/51527/1/pro-choice-activists-discuss-argentina-abortion-bill-protest

Indigenous women explain what’s at stake in Argentina’s abortion debate

A bill to legalise abortion is now at the senate. These Indigenous women explain what the debates mean for lives on the ground. #12DaysofResistance

Luciana Mignoli
26 December 2020

“Talking about abortion is a huge challenge,” says Bashe Nuhem. She’s a feminist activist, radio presenter and video producer, and a member of the Qom indigenous community in Castelli, an area in north-east Argentina known as “the doorway to the Impenetrable”, an extensive and once dense forest.

“I work in an indigenous radio station and, with my colleagues, weave words together. We challenge men who don't want us to talk [about abortion]. It remains a taboo,” Nuhem explains. We spoke as the lower chamber debated a new bill to legalise the “voluntary interruption of pregnancy” up to the 14th week in Argentina. Having passed the lower body of parliament in early December, the bill is now before the senate.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/indigenous-women-explain-whats-at-stake-in-argentinas-abortion-debate/

Legal abortion: a right, not a privilege

Last December 11, the Chamber of Deputies of Argentina approved the project of voluntary interruption of pregnancy. It is a great step forward to expand the debate on the legalization of abortion in Latin America.

Democracia Abierta
21 December 2020

Six days ago, the Argentine Chamber of Deputies approved the voluntary termination of the pregnancy project. This opens the debate, again, on the legalization of abortion in Latin America.

According to the Global Abortion Database of the World Health Organization, access to abortion in the region is restricted. Each country has its conditions and vetoes that, in the end, end up taking away women's possibility to decide about their bodies and future freely.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/aborto-legal-derecho-no-privilegio-en/

21.12.2020

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How The Pandemic Is Limiting Access To Abortion

Across the globe, travel restrictions, stay-at-home orders and shifting health care priorities have combined to make abortion an even more difficult procedure to obtain.

Hannah Steinkopf-Frank
2020-10-19

As hospitals around the globe direct their attention and resources toward helping COVID-19 patients, other medical needs are, inevitably, getting less attention. One of those is women's reproductive health and access, in particular, to abortion, as evidenced in a recent study by the advocacy group Marie Stopes International. In a recent report, the organization noted that between January and June, in 37 countries, nearly two million fewer women received abortions than in the same period last year.

• Travel restrictions and bans have had an impact as well, limiting options for women in places ranging from the United States to Poland, as they are unable to access abortions in other states or countries where it is considered an essential procedure.

Continued: https://worldcrunch.com/coronavirus/how-the-pandemic-is-limiting-access-to-abortion

The rape survivors facing an ‘impossible choice’ in Brazil

By Ana Ionova, Rio de Janeiro
Oct 14, 2020

Paloma had just cobbled together enough money for a clandestine abortion when the coronavirus pandemic shuttered much of Brazil.

The 27-year-old had been raped late last year by an ex-boyfriend who remained a close family friend. The mother of two found out she was pregnant a few weeks later, after moving from her native Bahia to Minas Gerais, a nearby state, for work.

"I didn't know what to do," recalls Paloma. "The only thing I was certain of was that I didn't want this child."

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-54447343

Africa – Abortion is healthcare – and this makes it a human right

Reproductive justice is about much more than the freedom to choose to terminate a pregnancy or not – it challenges systems of oppression and discrimination and calls for a focused action plan for law reform.

By Tlaleng Mofokeng
14 August 2020

Dignity, bodily integrity, equality, safety and security, and health – including reproductive health – are human rights.

States must work to ensure that all people, regardless of gender, age, immigration or documentation status, geography or class, are able to access life-affirming and comprehensive healthcare. No circumstances or interventions should lead to discrimination, obstruction of access to abortion, or complications or death due to unsafe procedures.

Continued: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-08-14-abortion-is-healthcare-and-this-makes-it-a-human-right/

India – ‘Women always take the brunt’: India sees surge in unsafe abortion

Low priority for reproductive health during lockdown leaves millions unable to access contraception or safe terminations

Neha Thirani Bagri in Mumbai
Published on Mon 13 Jul 2020

Sadhna Gupta* discovered she was pregnant just after India imposed a crippling lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19.

The 21-year-old from the eastern Indian city of Bhubaneswar didn’t want to be pregnant. With no public transport available, clinics closed and Bhubaneswar at a standstill, she bought an abortion pill without consulting a doctor. While what she did was not unusual, Indian law requires a prescription for the pills from a licensed medical professional.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/jul/13/women-always-take-the-brunt-india-sees-surge-in-unsafe-abortion