The group Chicas Poderosas describe themselves as “a global community that ignites change by inspiring and developing women in media, creating opportunities for all voices to be heard”. They have just launched a report of collaborative research into the access of women, adolescents and LGBTQI+ people to sexual and reproductive rights in Argentina during the Covid-19 pandemic, including in relation to pregnancy and childbirth, access to abortion, HIV treatment, sexuality education, and other rights, which were often hindered.
They are a group of 45 women, LGBTQI+ journalists and communications professionals from all over Argentina who worked together on the web-based report. The report includes stories, videos, podcasts, infographics, data visualisations and illustrations of the role of the state and the provincial governments, the support provided by feminist networks, and the situation of vulnerable sectors of the population whose sexual and reproductive rights have been affected during the Covid-19 pandemic in the country’s 23 provinces and Buenos Aires.
“The main obstacles faced by the protagonists of the stories were to do with circumstances arising from the pandemic, but also with long-standing violence and violations. The pandemic added barriers to a system that was already far from facilitating the full exercise of rights.
Their research found that state distribution of misoprostol for safe abortion increased during the pandemic, but even so, some women have died of unsafe abortions and “the feminist movement continues to be the guarantor of access to abortion” and the Socorristas en Red continue to accompany those who terminate their pregnancies at home.
SOURCE: Los Derechos no se Aíslan (en español); Pagina 12, 26 November 2020 (en español)