How #NiUnaMenos grew from the streets of Argentina into a regional women’s movement

Enlarge this image

Thousands of pro-choice activists, including feminist groups from the U.S. and Chile, demonstrate in favor of decriminalizing abortion, outside Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Feb. 19, 2020.

Natacha Pisarenko/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Natacha Pisarenko/AP

Goats and Soda
What Did You Expect? The Question That Women Are Sick Of Hearing

Ni Una Menos started out as a slogan, merged into a viral hashtag used online, and eventually a regionwide movement. The message spread and has continued to expand in the years since. Other women-led demonstrations also erupted in Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay and El Salvador — areas that also suffer high rates of femicide.

Years later, «this massive mobilization was also able to draw attention to another longstanding fight which was reproductive health and rights, Ximena Casas tells NPR. She is an Americas Researcher for the women’s rights division at Human Rights Watch in Madrid.

Activists in Latin America that emerged from this Ni Una Menos groundswell have successfully pushed for access to abortion in a traditionally conservative region, while continuing the work of the movement’s original mission.

«In the past, regions such as North America and Europe have been at the forefront of movements to expand sexual and reproductive rights, Mariela Belski, the executive director for Amnesty International Argentina told NPR. «However, it is currently the trans feminist movements in Latin America that are advancing discussions that place reproductive autonomy and gender justice at center stage.

Enlarge this image

A protester has the Spanish message «Not one less painted on her cheek during a pro-life demonstration in Buenos Aires on June 4, 2018.

Natacha Pisarenko/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Natacha Pisarenko/AP

Latin America
Argentina Legalizes Abortion In Historic Senate Vote

The Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Bill permits an abortion to take place throughout the initial 14 weeks of pregnancy. An abortion is only legal in Argentina if the mother’s life is jeopardized or if the pregnancy is a result of rape. Women who fall outside these provisions and get an abortion can still face criminal charges.

More work remains, according to María Florencia Alcaraz, an Argentine journalist and one of the founding members of Ni Una Menos, who spoke with Women Across Frontiers.

«The abortion law is a starting point, not an ending point, she said. «Now comes a moment of feminist pedagogy about this right to be able to speak about and explain to as many people as possible that this is a right that we have and that we are citizens who can make our own decisions about our bodies.

Other countries follow Argentina

Women going out into the streets to share their experiences, helped break down the stigma tied to abortion and reproductive health, said Casas, with Human Rights Watch in Madrid.

«Women started talking about their experiences or experiences of a friend. Families started talking about it at the dinner table. Everybody started realizing that they knew someone who had an abortion or they themselves had an abortion, Casas said. «This opened the door to start talking about these issues, that are a health issue, that for many many years was seen as a taboo.

Enlarge this image

A woman holds a placard that reads in Spanish «Neither Dead Nor or in Prison, during an abortion-rights demonstration on the Day for Decriminalization of Abortion in Latin America, in Mexico City, on Sept. 28, 2021.

Ginnette Riquelme/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Ginnette Riquelme/AP

Latin America
Mexico’s Supreme Court Has Voted To Decriminalize Abortion

This year, the Mexican state of Veracruz approved the decriminalization of abortion up to 12 weeks of gestation. The Mexican state of Hidalgo also joined Veracruz this year in recognizing this right.

Chile is also moving toward decriminalizing abortion for the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. In September, the Chilean Chamber of Deputies approved a bill that could be passed by the Senate.

The progress in the region is starkly at odds with efforts in the U.S., Belski, with Amnesty International Argentina, noted.

This year, Texas passed a law that bans abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. Meanwhile, the U.S Supreme Court is about to hear a case from Mississippi that could challenge the right to an abortion in that state.

The pandemic made violence against women worse

Enlarge this image

A woman has one eye covered to protest gender violence, in Buenos Aires, on Feb. 17, 2021. Women from the «Ni Una Menos or «Not One Less movement marched to protest what they say is the negligence of judges when it comes to taking measures against aggressors of women.

Natacha Pisarenko/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Natacha Pisarenko/AP

Enlarge this image

Patricia Nasutti, mother of Ursula Bahillo, who was found in a field stabbed to death kisses the coffin that contains her daughter’s remains, at the cemetery during a burial service in Rojas, Argentina, on Feb. 10, 2021.

Natacha Pisarenko/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Natacha Pisarenko/AP

Patricia Nasutti, mother of Ursula Bahillo, who was found in a field stabbed to death kisses the coffin that contains her daughter’s remains, at the cemetery during a burial service in Rojas, Argentina, on Feb. 10, 2021.

Natacha Pisarenko/AP

But this time feels a bit different, some activists and human rights watchers say.

The way in which these cases are being talked about is shifting and policymakers have started to view these incidences as what they are: a serious, violent problem that requires public policy fixes, Nice said.

Following Bahillo’s death, Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández said, «We must end these events definitively in Argentina. We must be inflexible with the perpetrators of these cases.

Nice said the work that remains and the barriers that still exist for women is a reminder that the Ni Una Menos and its sister Green Wave movement is a «success story in progress.

«Women see that it is working, she said. «That the protesting, reaching out to their authorities and now having a sense of belonging — not so much as a Mexican, an Argentine, or a Chilean, but as Latin American women — I think that has given women a lot of power.