Abortion Rights in Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina: Movements Shaping Legal and Policy Change

Abstract

Focusing on Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina, this article explores the diverse political strategies of the abortion rights movement and their impact on the legal and policy changes we are currently witnessing. Feminist and women’s organizations have used the institutional channels of democracy to advocate for legal reform and developed strategies that exceed the boundaries of institutional politics. On the one hand, they introduced bills through popular initiatives and lobbied legislators, pursued court litigation, worked to facilitate access to care in the formal medical system in cases permitted by the law, and mobilized in the streets to demand change. At the same time, movements developed other strategies at the margins of the law that also made decisive contributions to the shifting panorama of abortion politics in the region. In particular, since the late 2000s, feminist and women’s organizations have supported access to safe medication abortion without professional supervision in restrictive legal contexts. In sum, this article shows how, through the use of diverse political strategies, these movements have not only reshaped policy and law at a national level but are also contributing to reimagining abortion politics and movement strategies at a global level.