From Bodily Autonomy to State Responsibility: Narratives and Gramatics around Legal Abortion in Argentina

Abstract

In December 2020, abortion was legalized in Argentina, a historic event resulting from decades of feminist activism. This militant process intensified since the 2015 protests known as "Ni Una Menos" (Not One Less). In this context, clandestine abortion is thematized as an extension of this violence and as a cause and consequence of economic inequality, and therefore the responsibility for its resolution also falls on the State. Among the political slogans of the protests in favor of legalization, the need for public hospitals and the demand for legalization or decriminalization played a fundamental role. In this sense, we ask ourselves, what narratives did the protesters manage to synthesize and mobilize? What elements in relation to political culture were fundamental for this purpose? In a context of conservative backlash and attacks on feminist movements, the role of the State in minimizing structural inequalities, and, in particular, the practice of abortion, we propose analyzing, from the perspective of collective action, the narratives that framed the process of legalizing abortion, in order to reflect on the role of the State in public reproductive health policies.