Argentine feminism has found a common enemy to unite against after years of internal divisions: Javier Milei. The ultra-candidate for Argentina’s presidency, favorite in the polls ahead of parliamentary elections on October 22, has promised to abolish the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, repeal the law on voluntary abortion passed in 2020 and put an end to other conquered rights of women. In response, thousands of people took to the streets in various cities across the country this Thursday to warn that they are not ready to give in.
“If Milei wins, we all lose,” read one of the posters put up on the central Avenida de Mayo in Buenos Aires during the mobilization. The slogans against the leader of the far-right party La Libertad Avanza were repeated in the chants of this march as part of the Global Day of Action for Access to Abortion. “With Milei, women’s rights are not about progress, but about regression,” said the banner held up by a young woman. “Freedom means being able to decide whether you want to be a mother or not,” said another. “Freedom means that 80% of children who have suffered abuse have been able to tell about it thanks to ESI [educación sexual integral]” insisted a third. It was one of the largest demonstrations of Argentine feminism since the end of the pandemic, but it was still a far cry from the demonstrations before the health emergency.
A participant in the march carries a Milei doll wrapped in danger tape in Buenos Aires.MC on September 28
Marina Hidalgo Robles, a member of the Las Rojas collective, pointed out that the call took place in “a new scenario.” “In 2015, when he won [el conservador Mauricio] Macri we started with the Ni una menos gatherings. if you win [el peronista] Alberto Fernández, that’s broken. Four years ago we didn’t have such actions,” he explained. The activist moved forward, she had gone with her mother, with her aunt, with friends. “Today they are attacking us and challenging the abortion law, but there is no defeat, the feminist movement is not defeated,” she said. However, the activist believes that “whoever wins” in the October elections will see “an attack on all rights” because “there is a profound decay of institutions.” “To defend your rights you must be on the streets, and what you deserve you must always defend,” he said.
Dozens of organizations signed a “unified” document that was read to Argentina’s Congress. “We took to the streets all over the country. There are many reasons to mobilize and we are committed to unified, comprehensive and diverse action,” begins the text, which addresses the needs in the areas of work, social affairs, education, justice, memory, the economy and the environment . The focus, however, was on the implementation of the abortion law and the defense of comprehensive sex education in schools. “We demand sexual education to choose, contraceptives to not have an abortion, and legal abortion to not die,” the letter says.
The text also expresses rejection of “rights targeting the feminist and LGTBQI+ movements, the right to abortion, health and public education, and comprehensive sexuality education, human rights and the commons.” “We take to the streets because we know that it is our battle space, for what we have achieved and for what we still have to achieve, because we will not take a step back,” defends the statement.
Progress in legislation
The last wave of feminism erupted in Argentina on June 3, 2015, shouting “Ni Una Menos.” Hundreds of thousands of women of all ideologies and ages took to the streets to demand action against femicide and a major cultural shift in the pursuit of gender equality. The demands made it onto the legislative agenda. In 2017, Congress passed the Gender Parity Law, which stipulates that the lists of candidates for Parliament must include men and women; In 2018, it passed a law against street harassment in Buenos Aires; In 2019, the passage of the Micaela Law required gender perspective training for all public sector employees.
Official records of femicide were also made public, more resources were dedicated to combating this extreme form of violence against women, and in the wake of actress Thelma Fardín’s rape allegations against her colleague Juan Darthés, thousands of women dared to speak out for the first time . To speak out loud about abuses that have been silenced for years, sometimes decades.
A group of women with drums during the March for Access to Safe, Legal and Free Abortion this Thursday. MARIANA NEDELCU (Portal)
Feminism then penetrated high schools and universities across much of Argentina, which took the lead in the street fight for comprehensive sex education and the legalization of abortion. After an initial legislative defeat in 2018, the Voluntary Termination of Pregnancy (IVE) Act was passed on the penultimate day of 2020, in the midst of the pandemic. The square in front of the congress received the news divided: on one side, thousands of women screamed and hugged each other with joy; On the other hand, families cried with anger and warned that they would do anything to overturn the new law.
Milei enjoys the support of this hard-core anti-abortion group, as he is the only presidential candidate who has explicitly supported repeal of the IVE. But the ultra candidate has also found another niche: that of those young men who felt out of place in the face of the rapid change in social rules and didn’t know how to move. “I’m not going to apologize for having a penis,” Milei said in a public interview. “I have no reason to be ashamed of being a blonde, blue-eyed white man,” he added.
This Thursday, the historical feminist Nina Brugo, 79, held a large banner at the head of the march calling for the “active implementation” of the abortion law. In exile she learned about feminism. Back in Argentina, she took part in the first national women’s meeting after the end of the dictatorship in 1983. “I fell in love,” she said, clutching the green flag she was holding, “the power of women can change the world.” “Today we go because there is danger, not just for the rights achieved , but also for labor law, public health and also public education. It is important that women in the country take to the streets,” she defended.
Next to her stood so many other historical feminists, like Dora Barranco, and in front of her a younger woman shouting into a loudspeaker. “Today is a day when we demonstrate for legal abortion,” he shouted, calling for the law to be implemented. “There are areas where they ask us if it’s the law where they don’t know it’s safe and free. They are scared and don’t know where to turn,” he said. The women around them chanted that “the patriarchy will fall,” that “feminism will prevail,” that “Latin America will be all feminist,” and they lit torches that filled the air with green smoke.
Women protest on the streets of Buenos Aires on September 28th. MARIANA NEDELCU (Portal)
María Dorrego, 32, joined this lawsuit. “If someone wants to have an abortion in Argentina today, they don’t know what to do, where to go or who to ask for help. And that is the law and we are in a government that more or less deals with it,” he noted. Dorrego, who was demonstrating with a friend and whose eyes glittered, warned: “When the right advances, the right goes backwards.” Another woman, Guillermina Urriza, 44, pointed out that feminism “is the only movement that says no says to the extreme right.” She believes that “the loss of freedoms” is at stake.
“It cost us so much to get the abortion law and we kept fighting after it was passed,” said Agustina Seggiaro, 22, a member of the Radical Civic Union, one of the parties that make up the center-right coalition Together for Change . “Milei’s party wants to remove this from the agenda,” Seggiaro said. “This is a historic moment when they want to violate our rights again. It’s important to be on the streets,” he added.
In addition to abortion, protesters defend the permanence of Law 26,150, passed in 2006, which recognizes the right to comprehensive sex education in all educational institutions in the country. Bárbara Riveros, a university professor and coordinator of a course in comprehensive sex education, defended that Argentina’s regulations are “very progressive,” although Milei says this information “deforms the head.” “The content is written by specialists. We do not teach, indoctrinate or teach them to be homosexuals or transvestites. We teach them that there is not just one way, the heteronormative way.” “The fact that they can repeal the law is dangerous,” he warns.