This article charts the arguments, strategies, and struggles of the abortion rights movement in Argentina, with special attention to the National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe, and Free Abortion. This heterogeneous coalition—widely recognized by its green kerchief—played a key role leading the impressive activist process that culminated with abortion legalization. The law approved by the Argentine Congress in December of 2020 provides for the right to voluntary abortion during the first fourteen weeks of pregnancy and allows for specific legal grounds for abortion after that period (rape or risk to the health or life of the pregnant person). Importantly, before legal reform was achieved, activists had patiently worked to advance the “social decriminalization” of abortion.
Politics of Recognition: The National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe, and Free Abortion in Argentina
María Alicia Gutiérrez is a professor of communications sciences at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), Argentina. She is also a Professor in the Communications Sciences career at UBA and a researcher at IEALC (Institute of Latin American and Caribbean Studies). She is a member of the National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe, and Free Abortion and coordinates the work group “Gender, Memory, and Feminisms in Latin America and the Caribbean” (CLACSO). Her areas of expertise revolve around gender, feminism, sexual and reproductive rights, and abortion. Her publications include the following books: Entre-dichos cuerpos (2016), Si no nos dejan soñar no los dejaremos dormir (2013), Voces polifónicas: Itinerarios de los géneros y sexualidades (2011), Género y familia: Rupturas y continuidades (2007).
María Alicia Gutiérrez; Politics of Recognition: The National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe, and Free Abortion in Argentina. South Atlantic Quarterly 1 April 2023; 122 (2): 386–396. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-10405147
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