Sexuality Policy Watch, by Clara Faulhaber, Fábio Grotz, Sonia Corrêa, 18 January 2021
The end of 2020 was marked by an historic achievement for Latin American feminism with the approval of the Voluntary Termination of Pregnancy Law (IVG) in Argentina, which legalises abortion until the 14th week gestation and in certain conditions after that. This means that Argentina recognises motherhood as a right and not as an obligation. In addition, the new legislation represents a concrete measure to reduce deaths and hospitalisations of pregnant women from complications of illegal and unsafe abortions.
In this context, a joint project by Cfemea and Sexuality Policy Watch on abortion rights in Brazil carried out an extensive survey – clipping all news, notes, opinion articles, reports and podcasts published or disseminated in print and/or digital media from 1 December 2020 to 3 January 2021 on the debate and approval of the right to abortion in Argentina. In total, we found 334 records, from 99 different media sources. We classified them as either favourable (clear editorial position favourable to abortion), against (clear editorial position against abortion), neutral (clear neutral editorial position on abortion) and international (found by a Google Search and by an active search).
Of the total 334 items found, 87 were in major newspapers. Most of the reports/articles were neutral (170), followed by favourable (96) and then by opposed (42), plus separate international reports (26).
Confessional and religious publications were among those expressing opposition to the new law. One of them warned of a “potential contagion” in Brazil from the legalisation of abortion in Argentina.
Items in the four media with the widest circulation were classified as follows:
A complete list of the articles, authors, dates, links can be found here (em portugues)
FULL REPORT (em Portugues)
PHOTO: Aos 91 anos, veterana feminista comemora avanço do aborto legal na Argentina:
‘será lei’: O Globo, 13-12-20