Oscar-Shortlisted Film ‘Belén’ Exposes the Injustice That Helped Transform Argentina’s Abortion Laws

Based on a true story, Belén revisits a miscarriage turned prosecution, and the movement that refused to let it stand.

Jan 13, 2026
by S. Mona Sinha

Belén didn’t know she was pregnant until she miscarried in a hospital. She’d gone to the emergency room suffering excruciating abdominal pain. Instead of receiving care, she awoke from surgery handcuffed to her hospital bed, accused of having an illegal abortion.

This is the true story behind Belén, a powerful new Argentine film directed by, co-written by and starring Dolores Fonzi. It is based on the ordeal of a young woman from northern Argentina, chronicled in Ana Correa’s nonfiction book What Happened to Belén: The Unjust Imprisonment That Sparked a Women’s Rights Movement, the prologue of which was written by Margaret Atwood. (Belén is a pseudonym to protect her identity.)

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2026/01/13/oscar-film-belen-argentina-abortion-laws-miscarriage/

13.01.2026

What Happened to Belén: The Unjust Imprisonment That Sparked a Women’s Rights Movement

Dolores Fonzi on Argentine Abortion Rights Film ‘Belén’

Dano Nissen
December 15, 2025

Dolores Fonzi spoke with the Knockturnal about her film “Belén.” The film follows the true story of its titular character, a young Argentine woman who miscarries a pregnancy and is charged with an illegal abortion. Fonzi plays Soledad Deza, the lawyer who represents Belén. She also directed the film.

I want to start with the very first scene. It’s very thrilling and fast-paced and has a very different tone from the rest of the film. So tell me, as a director, because that’s one of the few scenes you’re not in, right? What was it like creating that feeling at the beginning of the film?

Continued: https://theknockturnal.com/dolores-fonzi-on-argentine-abortion-rights-film-belen/amp/

15.12.2025

Argentina – We Are All Belén

by Michelle Young
December 15, 2025

Belén (2025) is Argentina’s International Feature Film entry for the upcoming Oscars. The story is a true one, and it follows Belén, a pseudonym for a real woman who is falsely imprisoned for having an abortion, when she really had a miscarriage. Belén is held for over two years in Tucumán, Argentina, before being released in 2016. By telling her story, the film shows us a society that’s happy to predetermine a woman’s guilt when it comes to questions around abortion.

Unaware she’s pregnant, Belén goes to the hospital presenting with severe abdominal pain. The doctor determines she’s having a miscarriage at 22 weeks, which is considered the second trimester. It’s important to know that it’s entirely possible to be pregnant for this long and not know it – there’s even a term for it – a cryptic pregnancy.

Continued: https://latinamedia.co/belen/

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

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

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

‘Ghosts from the past’: fears of abortion setback after Milei wins in Argentina

Newly elected president and far-right libertarian has vowed to repeal country’s 2020 landmark legalisation of abortion

Ashifa Kassam and Josefina Salomón in Buenos Aires
Mon 20 Nov 2023

Three years after Argentina made history as the first large Latin American country to legalise abortion, women’s rights campaigners are gearing up to again go to battle after the election of Javier Milei as president.

“It’s a very bleak picture,” said Soledad Deza of the Fundación Mujeres x Mujeres. “This is a government that is promising us greater inequality and – from the first minute – that the autonomy, sovereignty and independence of our bodies is not going to be supported by the state.”

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/20/argentina-milei-abortion-womens-rights

‘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

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/

‘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