The Power of Mass Mobilisation: Argentina's Struggle for the Legalisation of Abortion

Abstract

The mass pro-abortion mobilisation which took place in 2018 has been arguably the most successful attempt in Argentina's history at altering the existing legal framework regulating access to voluntary termination of pregnancy. Never before has any legislative project legalising abortion reached the upper chamber of the Congress. Could this result be attributed to the support it received from a mass social movement? What are the limitations of mass mobilisations when a structural change to a long-lasting narrative is required? In order to address these questions, the issue of abortion will be examined through the perspective of power-making and counterpower-making strategies.

Reproductive Governance in Nordeste/Northeast (Juan Solanas, 2005, Argentina/France/Belgium/Spain)

“…Agency suggests the ability to choose and make change, and the film shows that each woman is limited in that respect. As Szczepańska (2020) suggests, the power of institutions like the state and the Catholic Church to construct moral regimes around reproduction is counterbalanced by mass mobilisation movements that consider restrictive reproductive rights as violence against women. Empowerment (power to, rather than power over) is central to Szczepańska's discussion.…”