What can we learn from the feminist fight to decriminalize and legalize abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean?
September 28th marks International Safe Abortion Day and also the day for the fight for the Decriminalization and Legalization of Abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean. Currently, abortion is legal and available upon request until different gestational ages in Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Guyana, French Guiana, Uruguay and a few parts of Mexico.
Although abortion is an ancestral practice regarding the autonomy of people over their bodies, the practice started to be persecuted and criminalized by Christianity and colonialism.
Abortion was a community reality in Abya Ayala territories before colonization, and it was used for centuries to regulate fertility, together with other methods available, such as calendar-based contraception (Assis & Larrea, 2020, p. 37).
It is only with the rise of modern-colonial state nations and their laws in the nineteenth century that abortion started to be criminalized, persecuted and banned (Assis & Larrea, 2020, p. 37).
With this, in the last decades the fight for abortion rights in Latin America and the Caribbean has been a collective effort marked by solidarity, shared strategies, and admiration.
Why was September 28th chosen to be the day for the fight for abortion?
This day was first proposed during the V EFLAC (Feminist Encounter of Latin America and the Caribbean) in 1990, which was held in Argentina. In that year, feminist activists from 14 different countries heard for the first time about the potential use of misoprostol, best known as Cytotec, to perform an abortion, a medication that was used until then to treat ulcers (Carbajal, 2021).
The abortive potential of this medication was discovered by Brazilian women and pharmaceuticals in the northeast of the country in the late 1980s. This historical discovery revolutionized the possibility of having a safe abortion and allowed the diminishing of maternal deaths as a result of the practice in the 1990s (Barbosa & Arilha, 1993).
So, the Brazilian women proposed holding the workshop on September 28th, attended by more than 200 feminists. The date was chosen because Brazil approved the "free womb" law in 1871, freeing all people born from enslaved women from that moment on (Carbajal, 2021).
Since then, the use of the medication spread all over the continent, diminishing the rates of maternal mortality due to abortion, and traveled worldwide until it was incorporated in the list of Essential Medicines of the World Health Organization.
Nowadays, the descendants of these women in Brazil and many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean do not have access to this essential medication. Meanwhile, it is used in Global North countries where abortion is legal.
The different fights for abortion decriminalization and legalization in Latin America and the Caribbean
Cuba
In Cuba, abortion has been available upon request since 1965. It was the first country in Latin America and the Caribbean to decriminalize the practice right after the 1959 socialist revolution (Zeiger, 2020).
The decriminalization was based on four principles: abortion is based on the pregnant person's autonomy, is free of charge, and has to be done inside health facilities and with specialized professionals (Antón Rodriguez & González 2022).
The procedure can be done until the 12th week of pregnancy without restriction and until the 26th week if there is a fetal malformation incompatible with life (Antón Rodriguez & González 2022). According to the activist Marta María Rampirez, in an interview with Latfem, abortion wasn't a taboo even before the revolution since there is a strong presence of the Yoruba religion, which diminished the strength of the catholic church in the country (Zeiger, 2020).
Argentina
After 34 years of articulated fighting, the feminist movement approved a law in the Argentinian Congress in 2020 legalizing volunteer abortion until the 14th week of pregnancy. After the 15th week, it is possible to access the procedure if the pregnancy is a result of sexual violence or if it represents a risk to the physical, mental or social health of the pregnant person (Educación sexual para decidir. Anticonceptivos para no Abortar. Aborto Legal para no morir, n.d.).
In 1986, during the first National Encounter of Women in Argentina, after the fall of the military dictatorship, they talked for the first time about abortion as a right to decide (La lucha por el Derecho al Aborto, n.d.).
Almost 20 years of articulated fight later, they launched in 2005 the National Campaign for the right to free and legal abortion. Over 14 years, the movement presented a bill proposal to the National Congress eight times, culminating in its approval in December 2020 (La lucha por el Derecho al Aborto, n.d.).
An essential strategy used in the last decade by Argentinian feminists was the accompaniment networks, which provided information, solidarity and accompaniment for those who needed to have an abortion while it was still a crime.
This pushed forward the debate and helped people to access abortion with pills, meanwhile taking abortion out of the closet. From 2014, the Socorristas en Red - feministas que abortamos - has given information about safe abortion. Their work is still important even after the legalization since nowadays they help people to access the approved right.
Colombia
Credits: Keyth Montaña.
In Colombia, abortion was decriminalized and legalized through a Supreme Court Decision in 2022, in an unprecedented judicial decision, allowing the practice until the 24th week of pregnancy (¿Qué es la Sentencia Causa Justa C-055 de 2022?, n.d.). With this decision, the country has one of the most advanced recognitions in the world regarding the autonomy of people who can get pregnant.
This resulted from Causa Justa's demand, a coalition of different national and international feminist movements and activists in the country. These organizations filed a lawsuit asking the Colombian Constitutional Court to eliminate the crime of abortion from the Penal Code, arguing that it violated the fundamental rights of women and health personnel. (El movimiento Causa Justa de Colombia interponedemanda para eliminar el delito de aborto del Código Penal, 2020).
Since the 1970s, feminist movements have been fighting for the decriminalization of abortion and for people's autonomy over their bodies. One of the most important strategies used by the movement in the last decade was the creation, between 2018 and 2019, of 90 arguments to defend the total decriminalization of abortion in Colombia (¡Derecho al aborto en Colombia! Conoce su historia, n.d.).
With education, advocacy and information, they brought abortion to the public debate on their own terms and achieved an unprecedented victory.
Uruguay
A very interesting and groundbreaking strategy in the region was used in Uruguay. Since 2012, the country has allowed abortion until the 12th week of pregnancy and, in cases of sexual violence, until the 14th week. It can be higher in cases of death risk of the pregnant person and for gestation with abnormal fetuses.
However, before the approval of the law, a health strategy used was the risk and harm reduction for unsafe abortion, which allowed health professionals to give information about pharmaceutical abortion and advice before and after the interruption of the pregnancy, without criminalizing the person in need.
This is a result of the feminist fight in the country that, between 1985 and 2007, proposed six bills about abortion, pushing forward the social debate about the practice, with MYSU (Mujeres y Salud en Uruguay) promoting campaigns for legal abortion (Campaña por el Aborto Legal, n.d.).
Brazil
Other countries in the continent have abortion partially decriminalized and legalized, which is the case of Brazil, the largest country in Latin America, where people are allowed to end a pregnancy in cases of rape, risk to the life of the pregnant person and when the fetus has anencephaly.
However, according to national research, 1 in every 7 women in the country has already had an abortion (Diniz et al., 2023). This means that the criminalization does not diminish the number of abortions; it just makes it more inaccessible and potentially dangerous.
In the country, feminist fights use the concept of reproductive justice, meaning that the fight for sexual and reproductive rights happens inside a collective solidarity. The main claims related to the idea of reproductive justice and reclaimed by black women in Brazil, especially in the 1970’s and 1980’s, was to eliminate politics of whitening of population and forced sterilization of black women.
With that, feminists want to bring the different discussions surrounding our reproductive lives, guaranteeing the right to contraception and abortion but also the right to have a child with the support of the state and community if this is the desire of the pregnant person.
There, different projects, like the Projeto Vivas, help people needing an abortion to get it outside the country, bringing them to do the procedure in places such as Argentina and Colombia.
The accompaniment networks and the need to keep pushing forward the debate and access to safe abortion
Free legal and feminist abortion is the revindication of Socorristas en Red. Credits: Cooperativa Audiovisual Argentina.
The accompaniment networks in the continent promote access to information about pharmaceutical and autonomous abortion. Some of them are part of Red Compañera, a network of 25 organizations present in 19 countries in the continent providing access to safe abortion in contexts of criminalization.
These feminist activist groups have been proving in the last decades that it is completely possible and safe to promote an autonomous abortion based on solidarity and non-judgmental support, as the experiences of Socorristas en Red, in Argentina, Samsara in Indonesia, Women Help Women and Women on Web online, and many others prove all around the world (Assis & Larrea, 2020, p. 38).
With these networks, the feminist movements in the continent keep pushing forward the debate, using different tactics and strategies to not only decriminalize abortion but to provide safe access to the pharmaceutical procedure for people in need, taking this subject outside of the closet.
As the Argentinian feminists, inspired by Che Guevera, said when they approved the law in Argentina, "la única lucha que se pierde es la que se abandona", which means "the only fight we lose is the one we abandon."
May these words and their fight inspire us!
1. Abya Yala is the name given by the indigenous population Kuna to the territory today called Latin America and the Caribbean, a name that was a colonial imposition (Curiel, 2014, p. 45).
References:
Antón Rodriguez, S., & González, Y. del S. (2022, agosto 18). El aborto en Cuba y el derecho a decidir. Granma. https://www.granma.cu/cuestion-de-leyes/2022-08-18/el-aborto-en-cuba-y-el-derecho-a-decidir-18-08-2022-00-08-00
Assis, M. P., & Larrea, S. (2020). Why self-managed abortion is so much more than a provisional solution for times of pandemic. Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, 28(1), 1779633. https://doi.org/10.1080/26410397.2020.1779633
Barbosa, R. M., & Arilha, M. (1993). The Brazilian experience with cytotec. Studies in family planning.
Campaña por el Aborto Legal. (n.d.). MYSU. https://www.mysu.org.uy/que-hacemos/incidencia/campanas/aborto/
Carbajal, M. (2021, agosto 28). Estas son las latinoamericanas que lanzaron el día internacional por el aborto seguro. Clacai. https://clacai.org/noticias/estas-son-las-latinoamericanas-que-lanzaron-el-dia-internacional-por-el-aborto-seguro/
Curiel, O. (2014). Construyendo metodologías feministas desde el feminismo decolonial. Em Otras formas de (re)conocer: Reflexiones, herramientas y aplicaciones desde la investigación feminista. Instituto Hegoa y SIMReF.
¡Derecho al aborto en Colombia! Conoce su historia. (n.d.). Mesa - Por la vida y la salud de las mujeres. https://despenalizaciondelaborto.org.co/derecho-al-aborto-en-colombia-historia/
Diniz, D., Medeiros, M., & Madeiro, A. (2023). National Abortion Survey—Brazil, 2021. Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 28(6), 1601–1606. https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-81232023286.01892023
Educación sexual para decidir. Anticonceptivos para no Abortar. Aborto Legal para no morir. (n.d.). Campaña Nacional por el Derecho al Aborto Legal, Seguro y Gratuito. https://abortolegal.com.ar/
El movimiento Causa Justa de Colombia interponedemanda para eliminar el delito de aborto del Código Penal. (2020, setembro 20). Causa Justa. https://causajustaporelaborto.org/demanda-ante-la-corte-constitucional-el-movimiento-causa-justa-le-pide-a-corte-constitucional-que-el-aborto-deje-de-ser-un-delito-en-el-codigo-penal-colombiano-como-un-cambio-favorable-para-las-muje/
La lucha por el Derecho al Aborto. (n.d.). Campaña Nacional por el Derecho al Aborto Legal, Seguro y Gratuito. https://abortolegal.com.ar/historia/
La Lucha por la despenalización del aborto en Colombia. (n.d.). Mesa - Por la vida y la salud de las mujeres. https://despenalizaciondelaborto.org.co/la-lucha-por-la-despenalizacion-del-aborto-en-colombia/
¿Qué es la Sentencia Causa Justa C-055 de 2022? (n.d.). Causa Justa. https://causajustaporelaborto.org/
Zeiger, C. R. (2020, dezembro 14). Aborto en Cuba: Más de medio siglo legal y sin tabúes. LATFEM.https://latfem.org/aborto-en-cuba-mas-de-medio-siglo-legal-y-sin-tabues/
About the author:
Jennifer Hartmann is a Brazilian decolonial and intersectional feminist activist. Her commitment to local issues is embodied in her active participation in Brazilian movements for reproductive justice and for safe, free, legal and autonomous abortion for everybody. In addition to her activism, she is a project officer at Politics4Her, a researcher, and a writer. Her academic journey includes a bachelor's degree in Journalism and two master's degrees, one in Political Sociology and the other in Gender and Women's Studies. Her other research interests include gender and migration, popular education and feminist education.
