“Unwanted pregnancies contribute to school dropout, domestic abuse, financial abuse and emotional abuse perpetrated by husbands, sons and family members,” said Chanelle Beatrice, a feminist from Trinidad and Tobago who is part of Feminitt Caribbean. an NGO dedicated to progress. gender justice in the Caribbean.
“The inaccessibility of legal abortions also contributes to infertility, unemployment, child abuse, mental health illness and death,” Beatrice added.
Laws are not enough
Even in countries that have moved toward more progressive sexual and reproductive legislation in the past decade, feminist activists must remain vigilant in protecting bodily autonomy and gender equality. Policies are not sufficient to ensure the acceptability, access and quality of abortion care.
Argentina is among those countries that must resist and defend its hard-won rights. After decades of effort, feminists succeeded in legalizing abortion up to the 14th week in December 2020.
It was a big win at the time – but now, in light of the new, more progressive rules in Colombia, Argentina’s 14-week time frame seems too short. And two years later, enforcement of its abortion law is uneven, varying greatly by social, cultural, economic and even geographic background.
“We know that even if we ever win … the main challenge we have and will continue to have in Argentina and in the rest of the world is to maintain the progress we have made with public policies,” Carino said. by Fós Feminista.
Ana Cristina González, a doctor, feminist activist and spokesperson for Just Cause Colombia, agrees. “We need to create an environment of legitimacy for women’s decisions… the possible future [for the abortion fight] is to support this decision, to ensure that it takes root among more and more people in health care services and among citizens,” she told openDemocracy.
“We are facing a big cultural battle, we need to reasonably show the reasons [for abortion] and have a debate. People can transform,” she added.
Sexual and reproductive rights advocates in Uruguay – the first South American country to legalize abortion (up to 12 weeks), in 2012 – stress the importance of protecting women’s rights.
Over the past decade, they have monitored law enforcement and denounced barriers to abortion access. As recently explained, access is a particular problem in rural areas, where health centers are few and medical personnel refuse to perform abortions on grounds of conscientious objection.
The quality of care also varies, and information and assessment are insufficient, activists say.
In 2020, Uruguay elected its first conservative government in 15 years. Shortly after taking office, President Luis Lacalle Pou said the government has a “pro-life agenda”. Since then, “resistance has become a heroic act” for abortion activists, according to Lilián Abracinskas, founder of the feminist organization Women and Health in Uruguay.
Abracinskas said that people in the government “relativize the concept of human rights, of gender violence [and consider] feminists and sexual diversity as external destabilizing agents influenced by foreign forces.”
“We are resisting in absolutely unfavorable conditions and outside the radar of regional and international organizations and interests”, she emphasized.
Too, too soon?
Earlier this year, while Colombia was decriminalizing abortion, Chile was drafting a new constitution that preserved sexual and reproductive rights, including the right to abortion, as fundamental and guaranteed by the state.
But in a national referendum in September, the country voted against accepting the new constitution. The decision means that the 2017 law that allows abortion only in cases of rape, inviolability of the fetus or danger to a woman’s life, remains in force.
Meanwhile, Brazil’s dramatic October election pitted far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro against leftist former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. During the campaign, Lula decided to remind conservative voters sympathetic to his candidacy of his anti-abortion stance. He won and will be inaugurated as Brazilian president on January 1.
“The biggest challenge for feminist movements is to join forces and have a clear strategy to prevent a reversal of the progress made in our countries,” Ana María Kudella Zallez, director of the feminist NGO Catholics for Right to Settle Bolivia. .
“But we also need to win and captivate through much more innovative communication actions that really reach the entire population.”
