A feminist green march filled the streets of Argentina a year ago to celebrate a milestone in human rights and equality. "It is approved with 38 affirmative votes, 29 negative votes and one abstention. It becomes law" were the words that approved the IVE Law (Access to Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy), which recognises the right of all women and pregnant people to voluntarily terminate their pregnancies.
The legalisation of abortion in Argentina was an example for other Latin American countries that continue to force women to have clandestine abortions, causing thousands of deaths. According to the WHO, in Latin America and Africa, "the majority of abortions (almost three out of four) are unsafe". Moreover, the Guttmacher Institute states in a report on induced abortion that "complications due to unsafe abortion procedures account for 13% of maternal deaths worldwide, or 47,000 a year".
This achievement was possible thanks to the thousands of women who marched and fought in the streets of Argentina. On 8 August 2018, an exciting march to the Senate took place where the voices demanding legal and safe abortion began to be heard with much more strength. A question not only of feminism, but also of class, since it is women with less economic power who cannot travel to other countries where it is legal, and are forced to have clandestine abortions in conditions that are totally unsafe for their health.
Cristina Simó, Secretary of the Feminist Area of the PCE, wrote a year ago about the criminalisation of abortion and stated that "in Argentina they have managed to differentiate between a political debate and a moral debate. Because politics cannot be based on the morality of the legislator, but on justice for all people, including women". According to Simó, "women are victims of the union of political, economic and religious power when they join forces to impose a regression in women's rights, such as the right to abortion".
On the first anniversary of the law, the National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe and Free Abortion has called for a "Pañuelazo Federal" in the squares of the country. Argentina became the example to follow for the Latin American feminist movement and the rest of the world. The feminist movement continues to fight against the disparity between Argentinean provinces for access to abortion, in favour of women's human rights, freedom and democracy.
