Years of grassroots efforts to support women’s reproductive rights was recently successful in legalizing abortion in Argentina. Argentina’s president, Alberto Fernández, was a supporter and the senate voted in favor of the bill after heated debate on Dec. 20, 2020. The feminist movement, symbolized by the green scarves carried by supporters, reached across regions, ages and socioeconomic statuses in this vast country.
The mostly volunteer-run organization Catolicas por el Derecho a Decidir (a Parsemus Foundation grantee) played a central role in advocacy and education with the goals of defending the sexual and reproductive rights of women and ending violence and discrimination. The legalization of abortion will end the “clandestine” abortions which were widely practiced outside of the healthcare system, an unsafe practice that sometimes resulted in death of the woman.
