[ U.S. has much to learn from new feminist movements that spurred
Argentina, Colombia and Mexico to dump traditional abortion laws. Now
powerful women’s movements in Mexico, Argentina and Colombia have
won access to the right to choose]
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GREEN TIDE RISING IN LATIN AMERICA  
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Laura Carlsen
September 19, 2022
The Indypendent
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_ U.S. has much to learn from new feminist movements that spurred
Argentina, Colombia and Mexico to dump traditional abortion laws. Now
powerful women’s movements in Mexico, Argentina and Colombia have
won access to the right to choose _

Thousands of pro-choice "Green Tide" demonstrators for abortion
rights in Buenos Aires, February 19, 2020.,

 

Latin Americans looked on in shock as the Trump-loaded U.S. Supreme
Court in June stripped women of a basic right that they had taken for
granted for decades. Since 1973, women in the United States could 
choose to terminate a pregnancy, while in Latin American countries,
women suffered clandestine abortions and imprisonment for deciding if
and when to enter motherhood. Now powerful women’s movements in
Mexico, Argentina and Colombia have won access to the right to choose,
just as women in half the U.S. states are on the verge of losing it. 

Mexico’s Supreme Court unanimously declared it unconstitutional to
penalize abortion on Sept. 7, 2021. The decision, centered on a
woman’s autonomy, affirmed that criminalization violates the sexual,
reproductive and human rights of women and discriminates against
“women and persons with the capacity to become pregnant.” Tens of
thousands of Mexican women poured into the streets to celebrate the
decision. 

“It is really fundamental in concrete terms that in this country no
woman can be imprisoned unjustly for exercising her right to
choose,” Karla Micheel Salas, a Mexican feminist
lawyer-activist, told me
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_The green tide_

Mexico’s victory was the result of decades of feminist grass-roots
organizing and strategic litigation. It also received a gust of wind
in its sails from the Argentine women’s victory in December 2020,
when congress passed a law allowing abortion during the first 14 weeks
of pregnancy. What became known as “the green tide” — after the
green bandanas worn by women in Argentina to symbolize life —
fueled movements throughout the hemisphere. 

The green tide and previous movements broke down social taboos against
talking about abortion and mobilized people to defend their rights.
The change at the community level happened silently, as a reality that
had been kept hidden by associations of sin and personal shame was
placed in the public sphere. 

Women in Mexico first had to build a movement that worked on three
main fronts: pressuring the state to guarantee the right to abortion
as the domain of a woman’s choice; educating and galvanizing public
opinion in favor of women’s rights; and creating networks to
accompany women who decided to abort, when it had to be done
clandestinely and under threat of prosecution. These strategies were
carried out simultaneously, and all faced opposition from the right
wing and from the state that put the women involved at great risk. 

The bravery and perseverance of women activists enabled the green tide
to advance. Colombia legalized abortion in February 2022, freeing more
millions of women and their families to make independent reproductive
decisions.

 

Colombians write the phone number for a free abortion clinic in the
subway during the 2020 protests for International Day for the
Elimination of Violence Against Women (Nov. 25) — the procedure was
still illegal in the country.  (Photo: Twitter/@Stefania1421  //
 The Indypendent)
The next showdown could be in Honduras, which has among the most
draconian anti-abortion laws in the region, rammed through by the
government of former president Juan Orlando Hernandez, now indicted
for drug trafficking in the U.S. The new progressive president,
Xiomara Castro, has promised feminist allies to support efforts to
eliminate the constitutional ban on abortions to at least allow it in
cases where there is a risk to the pregnant woman or girl’s life or
health, the fetus is not viable, or the pregnancy is a result of
sexual violence. Chile is also in line, as the right to abortion is
included in the proposed constitution that will go before voters on
Sept. 4.

_Backlash_

But the U.S. Supreme Court decision has once again proven that
progress in women’s freedom and rights are always vulnerable to
reverses. Latin American countries face a powerful Catholic Church
hierarchy and Christian fundamentalist movements that invest enormous
resources in restricting women’s rights. Governments maintained the
prohibition on abortion even as majority public opinion and
international human-rights standards evolved. Several countries,
notably Nicaragua, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, have
complete bans on abortions in all circumstances. Recent health
research estimates that as many as a quarter of pregnancies result in
miscarriage in the first trimester, which means that miscarriages too
are subject to criminal investigations and punishment. 

The lessons from Latin America are that grassroots mobilization works
to change laws that deny women’s rights, but also that women cannot
depend entirely on the patriarchal state to guarantee their rights.

The legacy of Catholic colonialism and the reality of neocolonialism
form major barriers in the fight for women’s reproductive rights.
Control over women’s bodies and reproduction was key to the colonial
conquests and now to imperialist efforts to exploit scarce natural
resources through extractive industries such as mining, oil and gas
exploitation, monocropping and hydroelectric plants. As women lead the
efforts against these projects being imposed on their lands, unwanted
pregnancies and criminalization of their sexuality force them to
retreat from the public sphere and severely affect their mental
health. Powerful economic interests benefit from women’s confinement
to domestic labors, and many of those interests emanate from the
United States.

Christian fundamentalism has played a role in the rise of reactionary
movements in both the United States and Latin America. In recent Latin
American elections, far-right candidates with explicitly anti-woman
platforms supported by religious fundamentalists have gained power as
their numbers rise. Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, elected in
2018 in large part because of the support of fundamentalist
groups, tweeted
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the Argentine legalization, “If it depends on me and my
administration, abortion will never be approved on our soil.” 

Experts warn that the Supreme Court ruling could fuel a backlash in
Latin America and the rest of the world. Right-wing anti-abortion
organizations are tightly linked and internationally funded. Many have
set up “crisis pregnancy centers” throughout Latin America that
offer disinformation to frightened young women facing an unwanted
pregnancy. They lobby against all efforts to respect women’s rights
over their own bodies. Abortion-rights organizations warn that the
ruling could increase funding to these groups, and have documented
that most opposition to abortion rights in Latin American countries is
driven by organizations from outside the country. This encouragement
of fundamentalists will also increase harassment and persecution of
abortion seekers and providers. 

The Supreme Court ruling is also likely to interfere with U.S.
organizations abroad working for sexual and reproductive rights. The
1973 Helms Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act has long prohibited
federal funds being used for abortions abroad. The “Mexico City
Policy,” initiated by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, banned U.S.
foreign aid from going to any non-governmental organization that
provides abortion-related services. The policy was rescinded by Bill
Clinton, reinstated by George W. Bush, rescinded by Barack Obama,
reinstated and strengthened by Donald Trump
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and  rescinded again by Joseph Biden. This ­Democrat-Republican
ping-pong game has wreaked havoc with women’s health services abroad
and points to the need for structural guarantees for women’s basic
rights. 

_A new era of feminist solidarity_

As a new phase of struggle begins in the United States, a new phase of
solidarity has also begun. Feminist organizations in Mexico are
working intensely with organizations in the United States to create
networks to accompany women having medication abortions, using
knowledge and experience they developed during decades of prohibition.
The World Health Organization has long recommended medication abortion
as a safe and effective method of terminating pregnancy. 

“Because abortion had been restricted for so many years in Mexico,
there came a moment when we in the movement had to go the other
way — not betting exclusively on legislation, not just relying on
the courts or that access to health services be guaranteed,”
explains Verónica Cruz, a pioneer in the formation of these networks
in Guanajuato, one of the most conservative states in the country.
“In addition to that, we began to work on the social
decriminalization of abortion, woman by woman, guaranteeing every
woman who needs it her right to abortion with social accompaniment.
That has made a difference in Mexico and throughout Latin America, and
I believe that today the United States has the opportunity to learn
from this experience, to learn from the South again.” 

Control over women’s bodies and reproduction was key to the colonial
conquests and now to imperialist efforts to exploit scarce natural
resources.

The lessons from Mexico and Latin America are that grassroots
mobilization works to change laws that deny women’s rights, but also
that women cannot depend entirely on the patriarchal state to
guarantee their rights — even though that is supposed to be the
state’s job. Autonomous women’s organizations in Mexico made huge
strides under cover in access to abortion, contributing to countless
women’s mental and physical health, and also preparing the ground
for legalization. 

This is not to say that legalization is not necessary. All women need
the right to have medical backup and to talk to professionals about
their decision to terminate a pregnancy. Most of all, they need the
assurance that they will not be prosecuted. However, in Latin America,
we have learned how to organize and how to access this right with and
without the blessings of the state. The issue here is not whether to
“permit” a medical procedure, it is how far the state should be
allowed to intervene in women’s personal lives. Mexico’s decision
is perhaps the clearest yet to legally and constitutionally locate the
decision in the realm of women’s life choices, with no legal grounds
for the state to dictate one way or the other. 

This is a dangerous moment for women’s rights in the Americas. But
women’s movements have perhaps never been stronger in Latin America.
In Chile, feminists mobilized nearly 2 million people on International
Women’s Day in 2020 and have achieved the inclusion of women’s
rights, including the right to abortion, in the proposed constitution.
Mexico’s “8M” demonstrations on the same day gathered hundreds
of thousands of marchers around the country. In many countries,
feminist and women’s movements are the strongest autonomous
grass-roots movements, challenging right-wing and supposedly
progressive governments alike. 

Even a chill factor from the United States will not turn back the
green tide. Now the challenge is to make it global, to recognize how
much strengthening or weakening restrictions on the rights of women in
one country can affect their rights in another. If we can leverage the
lessons learned, the organizing methods and the analysis of the
threats we face, we can move forward together and have women in
nations throughout the world, including the United States, filling the
streets with green bandanas and the assurance that their daughters and
granddaughters will experience the joy of sexual freedom and the
satisfaction of choosing their own life courses.

_[LAURA CARLSEN
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coordinator of Global Learning and Solidarity with Just Associates
(JASS) [[link removed]]. A dual Mexican-U.S. citizen, she
lives in Mexico City and writes on U.S.-Latin America relations.]_

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* Women
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* Green Tide
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* abortion rights
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* abortion
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* anti-abortion
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* Latin America
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* Mexico
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* Argentina
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* Colombia
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* Roe v. Wade
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* war on women
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* SCOTUS
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* Feminism
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* women's movements
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