By Marta Núñez

Feminists across the world are celebrating the passing of the Abortion Act in Argentina. 

On 30th December the Argentinian Senate voted in favour of legalising the voluntary termination of unwanted pregnancies. Outside the Parliament building, the “green tide” (as pro-abortion women are called because of their iconic green scarfs) waited anxiously for the result.  When the law was passed, the women broke into a massive sigh of relief followed by screams of happiness, tears of emotion, music, dance and expressions of affection. Women of all ages were present as this was a struggle that began decades ago and in which more than one generation participated. Meanwhile, the anti-abortion demonstrators that identify themselves with blue and white scarves lowered their aggressive profile and left the Plaza dragging a gigantic artificial foetus that by that time was coming apart.

During the most recent debates within Argentinian society, the question was no longer if abortion should exist or not, but if abortion was clandestine or legal. This was the perspective adopted by all Parliamentarians in favour, both from the Chamber of Deputies that discussed the Abortion Bill earlier, and from the Senate members. The Chamber of Deputies had approved the bill with 131 in favour and 117 against it. The Senate voted 38 in favour and 29 against. These numbers demonstrate that victory was a tight result, reflecting the divide that exists in the Argentinian society as well. 

There are sections of the population influenced by the very powerful Argentinian Catholic Church which considers the issue of abortion as a matter of faith. Along with very conservative and hypocritical groups they preferred to maintain the secrecy of abortions (as in any case, they could afford discreet and safe abortions for their women). With such opposition, abortion has remained a taboo topic for political debate for a long time. 

The undeniable truth was that having access to a safe abortion was a matter of socio-economic privilege more than anything.  Whereas poor and vulnerable women had to resort to cheaper but dangerous backstreet abortions, middle-class well-connected women with financial means could have abortions performed discreetly by well-qualified medical staff and in safe medical environments. Badly performed abortions were responsible for 50000 women hospitalizations per year, according to a study conducted by the former Ministry of Health in 2016. 

I spent my childhood and early youth in Buenos Aires and at an early age had to go through the experience of terminating an unwanted pregnancy. Brought up in a conservative and Catholic environment, I had only heard horror stories about abortions, plus the eternal damnation that “sinners” would suffer. This was during the ’70s, and apart from those terrifying accounts, I knew very little about how to find a solution. I was absolutely clear about what I wanted, the threat of death or eternal damnation were no obstacles for me. I felt very strongly about the ownership of my body. My then-partner who was much older than I could provide the money (working undergraduate, my salary was pitiful), and he found the right contacts. And yet the experience was humiliating. Lying to my own family about my whereabouts during a weekend, being a silent witness to fee negotiation between two men, the look of contempt from the nurse, the ironic “oh, it happens in the best families” line from the male doctor.  Contrary to what I had expected afterwards I felt just relief. I broke forever with the Catholic Church. I broke with my partner who, I discovered, was a married man, and I became very interested in knowing more about what was happening to other women, less privileged than myself. I was incensed by the oppression and injustice we women were suffering. Feminism started to make sense for me.  

During the ‘60s, abortion became one of the flags of feminist movements across the world, especially in Europe. Argentina had a strong cultural relationship with Europe because of its immigration history but also because of its cultural and intellectual curiosity towards France in particular. Argentinian women living in exile in Europe came into contact with such movements and became the “grandmothers” of the green tide. Argentinians remember today late Dora Coledesky, a Trotskyist lawyer who, after the 1976 coup d’Etat, fled the country and arrived in France where abortion had just become legal. Dora joined the Feminist Revolutionary League together with other exiled Latin Americans from Chile, Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina. 

Once military dictatorship ended in Argentina in 1988 the exiled women started to return, eager to organising a change. They joined other pioneers such as Magui Belotti and Marta Fontenla (now strong Abolitionists who Filia UK met in Buenos Aires before the Pandemic) who had resisted the dictatorship in the country and formed the Association of Women’s Work and Study. They also joined with Alicia Schejter (read an interview with Alicia below this blog).

In 2005 this group was renamed The National Campaign for Legal, Safe, and Free Abortion and went on to present abortion bills to Congress seven times, in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2018, 2019, and 2020.

As Angeles tells us in her video, the steps towards the legalisation were down to self-initiative, self-organisation, self-management, facilitating debates and workshops so the discussion was extended to student, political, feminist and Human Rights groups and was imbedded in society transversally across social classes, political parties, different age-groups and diversities.

What is happening from now on? As Alicia says in her interview, it will be necessary to observe how the conscience objection contemplated by the law impinges upon its implementation. 

On the other hand, feminist coalitions such as WHRC and Contra el Borrado de las Mujeres (Against the Erasing of Women) represented by Maria Jose Binetti, Argentinian philosopher and activist, have voiced their concerns about the actual formulation of the law, where the word “woman” has been replaced by “pregnant body”. “This is,” writes Binetti for Tribuna Feminista, “the elimination of a constitutional category[woman] to be replaced by a juridical fiction based on post-modern/queer theory”. At the moment Binetti and colleagues are working on bringing the attention of members of the legal system to the issue.  

The legalisation of abortion in Argentina is without any doubt an optimistic message to feminists from other Latin American countries, who have been and are struggling to obtain legal recognition of their inalienable right to decide about their bodies. 

Until now, the only Latin American regions that guaranteed abortion in the first three months of pregnancy are Uruguay, Cuba and two Mexican states. In others (eg Chile, Peru) abortion is permitted in specific circumstances (rape, incest, fetal abnormalities or life risk for the pregnant woman). However, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic have the toughest anti-abortion laws making abortion completely illegal. In some cases, even women who suffer miscarriages or are suspected of inducing abortion can be jailed for murder.

Interview with Activist Alicia Schejter

Alicia Schejter, 71-year-old Argentinian feminist and long-term activist in the struggle for legal abortion is interviewed by Marta Núñez, FILIA UK.

This is a time of celebration for all women in Argentina, and especially for those, like Alicia, who have been actively working towards the legalisation of abortion for than three decades. We began by discussing the origins of the struggle to achieve the right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. 

AS – For me, it all started in 1988 during an activity in a venue dedicated to women’s work and study. We created a Working Group for the Right to an Abortion (Comisión por el Derecho al Aborto). Since then, a handful of women used to meet in a coffee shop (Confiteria) opposite Parliament building in Buenos Aires and we worked to collect signatures from people supporting our cause. From this beginning, we attended national women conferences explaining the reasons for our struggle and as a consequence, more and more women joined us. By 2005, our campaign had grown enormously. More than 700 hundred organisations adhered. Trade unions, political parties, civil organisations, feminist groups…

MN – It must have been quite risky! Please tell us about your own experience as an activist.

AS – Oh yes! I have always been a grassroots street activist. My struggle was in street demonstrations, during public encounters, producing “propaganda” material. We worked in a very democratic way within our group. Leadership was not bureaucratic at all but achieved naturally and with authenticity. In the beginning, we received so many attacks! We were called murderers and criminals - by men but also by women who perhaps were full of contradictions.  We were taken away by the police many times. However, when more and more women joined the campaign it became almost impossible to continue to reject us.

MN- We all know that abortions were happening, even if not allowed by law. How did women of different sections of the Argentinian society manage to terminate unwanted pregnancies? 

AS- Poor women would die… and this still happens! They would take very toxic pills, or use very dangerous objects. The backstreet abortions were performed in appalling sanitary conditions. Some women would arrive to hospitals with severe infections. 

Meanwhile, women with money could afford to have safe abortions performed by doctors, but even so, the fact that they were illegal was putting them in a compromised situation. Everything was done in great secrecy.  

MN- In your opinion, what are the key factors that have contributed to making such progress towards the liberation of women and girls with the passing of this law?

AS - Without any doubt the “green tide” as we call the massive demonstrations of women in the streets was a huge contributing factor during the most recent years. I trust very much young women, their ideas have been much clearer than ours decades before. But they did not start from scratch, they took on board our idea that abortion was a public health matter. There was a shift in society from the “abortion yes/abortion no” position, to a more realistic position of “legal abortion or clandestine abortion”. 

MN- And now that it is the law, do you envisage any challenges for its full implementation? 

AS – The law allows medical conscientious objection, which I personally not agree with. This potentially could become an obstacle especially within the private sector and the health organisations belonging to trade unions (obras sociales), that cover all working people on employment. It will be necessary to be very vigilant about it. 

MN – And how do you feel today?

AS - I feel so excited! In my time we were five crazy women on the corner, very exposed to attacks by a very hypocritical society. This struggle was a pillar of my life, and now I hand the struggle to our granddaughters. They should expand the right to abortion in the rest of Latin America.

(Cover photo by Ricardo Ceppi/Getty Images)