Post-Truth and Setbacks: An Analysis of Anti-Choice Groups’ Discourse Strategies during the Legislative Debate on Abortion in Argentina
In 2018, Argentina underwent a historical debate on theright to abortion. Over a period of three months, 845 speakers both for andagainst legalization expressed their opinions and presented their knowledge atthe committees’ plenary sessions of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate, and 235legislators expressed their conclusions during the voting sessions in thoseChambers. Despite the Senate’s rejection of the Bill, over a year after thedebate the social interest and mobilization that resulted still persist.However, together with the “green wave” and the socialdecriminalization of abortion, some conservative and even reactionary demandsand anti-choice movements appeared and gained visibility both in Argentina andthroughout the region. In order for us to act against those anti-choice groupsin a coordinated and organized manner, we must know their strategies andarguments. This document compiles their discourse strategies during thelegislative debate that took place in Argentina between April and August 2018.We hope it will contribute to the social and legislative debates in LatinAmerica and to the continued growth of the “green wave.”
This publication provides a profile of the anti-abortion speakers, the traditionalanti-choice arguments they used, their use of human rights language,appropriation of pro-choice arguments, storytelling (between fake empathy andmorbid fascination), questioning the numbers of abortions and abortion deaths,use of alternative “scientific” sources, discrediting international bodies andfunding of pro-choice groups, and using negative “winning” arguments.
SOURCE: Post-Truth and Setbacks, REDAAS, by Maïte Karstanje, Nadia Ferrari, ZoeVerón, December 2019
SEE ALSO: From Clandestinity to Congress – An Analysis of the Voluntary Termination ofPregnancy Legislative Debate in Argentina, December 2019
And these and all REDAAS reports from 2015 to date (en español) at:
SEE ALSO: Argentina: Una promesa para que sea ley, en: La mala fé. N°18,2020