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ABSTRACT
On April 2018, the Argentine Congress began debating a bill proposing the legalization of abortion on request for the first time in the country's history. Although it passed in the Lower Chamber, the bill failed to be approved by the Senate. However, the legislative debate showed the strength of the Argentinean abortion rights movement. Since the mid-2000s, and as a reaction to political paralysis in the area of abortion rights, activists in this country developed three main strands of strategies, which differed in terms of their time-frames, levels of institutionalization, targets, and scales. Based on original field research, this article analyzes the way in which each of these three tracks addressed the state, the current legal framework and the need for legal reform. It argues that, when legal reform is blocked, different movement sectors may develop parallel strategies to increase access to their demands within the existing normative framework. Through their diverse strategies, they test the limits of the law, challenge hegemonic legal interpretations and re-interpret what is permissible in alternative ways. In addition, the interaction between the different strategies created a powerful synergy that strengthened the movement and made the recent legislative debate possible, even under the leadership of an anti-choice president. Given the similarities of the Argentinean restrictive legal framework and movement strategies with those throughout Latin America, these arguments are relevant for the assessment of current developments within abortion rights movements and their interactions with the legal system in other countries in the region.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 These changes include the divorce law (1987), a gender quota law (1991), a Sexual and Reproductive Health Program that grants access to contraceptives (2002), a law on violence against women (1994, reformed in 2009), and a Criminal Code amendment to include femicide as an aggravated type of homicide (2012).
2 Traditionally, doulas have been women that support other women during labor and childbirth through different ways: pain management, relaxation techniques, emotional support and compassion. More recently, doula services have been extended to all events of women's reproductive life, including abortions. Since then, the term 'abortion doula' has been used to refer to those that offer emotional and compassionate support to women having this procedure.
3 Supreme Court, F. A. L. s/medida autosatisfactiva, Expte. 21912, March 13, 2012. The full text of the Decision is available at: http://www.saij.gob.ar/corte-suprema-justicia-nacion-federal-ciudad-autonoma-buenos-aires--medida-autosatisfactiva-fa12000021-2012-03-13/123456789-120-0002-1ots-eupmocsollaf.
4 The Women's Meetings, which started to be held in 1986, are pluralistic and massive instances of participation of women from diverse sectors and organizations, not only feminists, from all over the country. They take place every year in a different province, gathering around 90,000 participants in the latest ones.
5 The text of the bill can be found at: http://www.abortolegal.com.ar/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Fundamentos-y-Proyecto-Ley-IVE.pdf.
6 The first public hearing took place on November 30, 2010, and the only presenter was Marianne Mollmann, legal advisor of Amnesty International. The second hearing was carried out on July 13, 2011, and the sole presenter was Luz Patricia Mejía, then Special Rapporteur of the IACHR for womeńs rights for Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador.
7 Even though the Campaigńs main focus has been on changing the abortion law, it has also demanded the effective implementation of the current indications model. One of the most successful actions in this regards was the claim against the Argentine State before the United Nations Human Rights Committee in the case of a handicaped girl who had been denied an abortion after being raped, which was carried out by organizations linked to the National Campaign (L.M.R. c/ Estado Argentino, Communication No. 1608/2007. UN Doc. CCPR/C/101/D/1608/2007).
8 Argentina is a federal country divided in 23 subnational units called provinces, and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
9 The information provided is in line with the World Health Organization’s website and describes how to have an abortion with misoprostol. In their leaflets, books and websites they are clear about what they do and do not do: “We are not doctors nor do we replace them. We communicate updated information from medical, scientific, and public sources so that women can make informed choices and care for their health” (Lesbianas y Feministas Citation2012a, 12). Their website, called Línea Aborto: más información, menos riesgos, is one of the main means for their work and communication.
10 The Movimiento Evita is a social piquetero movement associated with the Peronist Party. It was launched in 2004. ‘Piqueteros’ is the name given to movements of unemployed workers that in the 1990s began blocking highways as their main means of protest.
11 Nuevo Encuentro is a leftist political party allied with the peronist party Frente para la Victoria (FPV). They opened ‘consejerias’ (information centers) for safe legal abortion in 2014. In the city of Morón, governed by this party, this information is provided in the public health system. See Página/12 Citation2014b.
12 After they receive a call they organize a meeting in a public space (usually a café or a square) with 3 or 4 women who are thinking of interrupting their pregnancy and one of the socorristas. They read the leaflets on how to use misoprostol together and sort out any doubts women might have. After this meeting, they stay in touch with these women by phone and sometimes they visit them for around 20 days (Grosso, Trpin, and Zurbriggen Citation2014).
13 The Latin American Campaign was launched at the V Regional Feminist Meeting (Encuentro Feminista Lationamericano y del Caribe) in San Bernardo, Argentina, 1990.