At dawn on December 11, Argentina moved one step closer to becoming only the fourth country in Latin America to legalize abortion as the lower house of Congress passed a bill for the legal interruption of pregnancy, 131 in favor to 117 against. The Senate, which rejected a similar bill in 2018, is scheduled to vote on the issue on December 29. As the house deliberated for 20 hours, thousands of women and feminists held a vigil outside in support of reproductive rights and autonomy, implementing an infrastructure of care that allowed them to come together despite the pandemic. In doing so, they defied both the conditions created by the pandemic, but also the conservative backlash that is attacking reproductive rights around the world, as recently seen in Poland.
The passage of the bill – that will save countless lives – is the result of decades of activism by feminists, women, and people with the capacity to gestate, which coalesced in the National Campaign for Right to Legal, Safe, and Free Abortion and also multiplied into numerous associations and organizations, which have been able to connect the criminalization of abortion to other forms of gender-based violence, including economic violence, state violence, and environmental violence, and to the struggle for women’s autonomy – recalling the concept of reproductive justice as developed by Black women in the US to account for the multiple elements that would enable safe and autonomous reproduction.
Still the Argentinian bill, drafted by the government, includes the possibility of conscientious objection, which means that a health care worker or institution can refuse to administer abortion services on the grounds of conscience or religious belief. Since the experience of other countries, such as Italy and Germany, have shown this possibility can significantly undermine access to abortion services, it is therefore fiercely criticized by the Campaign and other feminist groups. The conflict over the right to safe access to abortion will therefore continue.
But – as one speaker at the vigil in Buenos Aires said – public opinion on the question of abortion has changed in the last 15 years in a way that was not imaginable then. In any case, the effect of feminist organizing goes far beyond the parliamentary debate and national borders. December 29 will be the next step for a transnational feminist movement, with the Argentinian National Campaign for Right to Legal, Safe, and Free Abortion calling for solidarity actions all around the world. #EsAhoraSenado #AbortoLegal2020
Netpick: On abortion and interruptions
Interview with Martha Rosenberg, Página 12, 11.12.2020
Verónica Gago, of the Ni Una Menos collective interviews Martha Rosenberg, psychoanalyst and longtime feminist activist who had been fundamental in the campaign National Campaign for Right to Legal, Safe, and Free Abortion since its beginnings. They discuss Rosenberg’s new book On abortion and other interruptions: Women, Psychoanalysis, Politics (published by milena cacerola), as well as the genealogy of the struggle for women’s reproductive rights in Argentina.
Netpick: On working towards reproductive justice
Gwendolyn Wallace, Expecting more, 04.02.2020
Gwendolyn Wallace shows why the fight for abortion rights must be linked to the possibility of having and parenting children in safe environments. Here she provides a short introduction to the concept of reproductive justice as developed by Black women.
Netpick: Poland – Revolution in times of the pandemic
Agata Czarnacka, transform! Europe, 10.11.20
The protests in Poland following the Constitutional Court’s ruling on abortion have broadened into a wider opposition, with women at the forefront once again. This is necessary, as the only way out “will be to change the government and the entire legal system with it”, says Agata Czarnacka.
RLS: Poland – After the headlines.
12.12.2020
Anna Krenz, Polish abortion rights activist from Dziewuchy Berlin talks about the urgency to act.
RLS: Mexico – Taking over
12.12.2020
Feminist and transfeminist activist have taken over the Congresses in Puebla and Quintana Roo and demand their right to safe abortions.
EVENTS
RLS: Feminist Insights: Resilience and Resistance in Times of COVID-19
15.12.2020
18.30 – 20.00 Berlin // 14.30-16.00 Rio de Janeiro // 19.30 – 21.00 Amman // 23.00 – 0.30 Delhi
Youtube: https://youtu.be/bPB6gEnXUtE
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosaluxglobal/posts/830136291166021
Women have been at the forefront of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic since it began, working tirelessly to resist injustice, enhance solidarity, and to envision sustainable solutions for their communities despite movement restrictions, scarcity of funds, and uncertainties about the future. Anielle Franco (Brazil), Kristina Kaghdo (Jordan) and Radhika Menon (India) discuss what that means in their respective countries.
More voices on that question – also from Argentina, Ecuador, Zimbabwe and the Philippines – can be found in the corresponding dossier: Feminist Insights, Resilience and Resistance in Times of COVID-19: Perspectives from the Global South by Kristina Hinz and Izadora Zubek.
MEDIA
RLS: De/Constructing Internationalism
May 2020
Even in the pandemic, feminist movements draw on their experience of transnational organizing.
transform! europe: The Project of a Marxist Feminist International
December 2020
Frigga Haug, Heidemarie Ambrosch, Nora Räthzel, Diana Mulinari and Jule Goikoetxea on the growing Marxist feminist project, its possibilities and practices, as well as on its future working methods, activities and priorities.