Abstract

This paper analyzes the course of the feminist struggle for the legalization of abortion in Argentina. Although the demand for a law that recognizes the right to freely terminate a pregnancy began in 2005, state institutions resisted discussing the issue for many years. It was in 2018 that the National Congress opened its doors to debate. So many years of work, organization and struggle allowed us to sustain a solid discourse, based on women’s freedom, which generated unprecedented social mobilizations. Despite this, the Senate rejected the bill. The parliamentary failure did not prevent the issue from continuing on the public agenda and the force of the debate made it clear that the regulation of abortion was unacceptable for the conception that women have of our bodies and sexualities. Consequently, abortion was a major issue in the 2019 presidential election campaign, and the candidate who ultimately won vowed to push for legalization again. With the change of government, the feminist struggle agenda was institutionalized and the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity was created. Several feminists held pivotal roles in government and organized in Parliament. In 2020, the legalization of abortion was discussed again and approval was achieved. However, the fight for legal, safe and free abortion did not end there. Resistance and counterattacks were not long in appearing. The article will show several situations in which an attempt was made to obstruct the implementation of the law, access to the practice, and the criminalization of health professionals who performed legal abortions was promoted. According to Pitch, the public discourse that supports the regulation of abortion affects the accessibility of the right. Based on this premise, it will be analyzed to what extent the feminist mobilization prior to legalization is capable of sustaining and modeling the implementation of free abortion in Argentina.