Between Implementation and Backlash: Examining the Reconfiguration of the Abortion Movement in Argentina After Legalisation

The objective of this paper will be to analyse the reconfiguration of the role(s) of the Campaign for the Legalisation of Abortion in Argentina in a post-legalisation scenario. The Campaign is an alliance of over 800 organisations that built a multipronged approach towards legalising abortion on demand. It took 15 years since the Campaign was founded to accomplish its main goal in December 2020, when abortion on demand was made legal until 14 weeks of pregnancy. Yet due to the novelty of this issue, less is known about the role of the Campaign and some of its member organisations in the aftermath of achieving such an objective, particularly in accompanying the implementation of the law throughout the territory. Moreover, the current political landscape in Argentina is characterised by the rise to power of a far-right government with an explicit anti-gender agenda, which seeks to roll back on several of the progressive laws that have been passed in the country favouring gender-based rights, with the abortion law being at the forefront of this backlash. Thus, through a documentary review of policy papers and regulation, participant observation, and in-depth, semi-structured interviews with key Campaign members, the paper will focus on addressing the continuities and changes in the process of alliance-building and mobilization strategies of the Campaign in both after-legalisation scenarios of policy implementation and backlash response, from early 2021 – when the Law of Access to the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy was enacted – to mid-2024. I will seek to contribute to the literature on reproductive issues understood within the broader spectrum of access to rights and democracy as catalysts of intersectional feminist demands.