Palma was referring to the annual conference organized by various women’s groups in Argentina. The gathering has helped mobilize thousands of women across the South American country around the demand for legalization of abortion. September 28 marks the Day to Decriminalize Abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Last year’s conference took place August 17 in Rosario, and attracted some 9,000 women. During the gathering, more than 10,000 people marched in support of a woman’s right to choose abortion.

Palma said that leading up to this year’s conference she was planning to speak on a panel on women’s rights, preceding a march in the city of Córdoba.

Similar marches are also being organized in Santiago and Valparaiso, Chile—the first to this reporter’s knowledge. This comes on the heels of rallies and marches by women and others in Chile to defend the government’s decision to legalize the contraceptive “morning after pill.” In Chile—as well as in El Salvador—abortion is illegal under any circumstances.

In Argentina, abortion is illegal and punishable by time in prison. A court may allow abortion only in the case of rape or if a woman’s life is in danger.

Nonetheless, it is estimated that in Argentina about 4 out of 10 pregnancies are terminated by abortion. According to the country’s health ministry, as many as 500,000 Argentine women have abortions every year. The top cause of maternal death in the country—about 80 percent of such deaths—is complications from abortion. In the last half decade, hospital admissions from botched abortions have risen substantially in a number of provinces. About 500 women die from such abortions every year, and 16,000 women suffer serious permanent physical damage, according to Gines González García, Argentina’s health minister.

On March 8 of this year, thousands rallied in Buenos Aires and other Argentine cities to celebrate International Women’s Day and push for decriminalizing abortion.  
 
Romina Tejerina
In July, the debate on abortion flared up again, as it became known that two young women—Andrea Romina Ayunta, 25, and Mabel Fernanda Facciano, 24—died from complications of attempting to abort. Ayunta, mother of three, had taken abortive pills, while Facciano was taken to the hospital from a woman’s home while attempting a self-induced abortion. The woman who owned the home was later arrested.

The demand to free Romina Tejerina has also been backed by a number of women’s rights organizations across Argentina. Tejerina, 20, was raped over a year ago by a neighbor. She became pregnant and attempted a self-induced abortion, which was unsuccessful. She later gave birth to the child in her bathroom and drowned it. Soon afterwards, she was arrested and has remained in jail for the last year and a half without charges. She wasn’t provided with any psychological therapy for the first nine months of imprisonment.

The man she has accused of raping her has remained free. On July 16, hundreds of women marched in Buenos Aires demanding the release of Tejerina, access to free contraceptives, and centers for battered women.

In June, hundreds marched in the city of San Juan when the San Juan provincial government decided to suspend the Women’s Reproductive Health Law, and banned discussion on women’s reproductive rights at hospitals or other public facilities. Most media in Argentina gave scant coverage to the San Juan action, and have published very little on the Tejerina case.

These struggles will be discussed further at this year’s women’s conference, Zulema Palma said in a telephone interview.

Pre-conference meetings, Zulema Palma said, were organized in various cities across the country on September 18.

“We are hoping for a bigger turnout this year,” she said. “In the last year more young women from universities and women from the unemployed organizations have become more active in the fight to legalize abortion in Argentina.”

Among the sponsors and participants in last year’s demonstrations were organizations of unemployed and retired workers that have been active in the previous two years of working-class protests against the effects of the country’s financial collapse.

Palma said that women are expected this year from Chile and Uruguay. The city of Mendoza is directly across the Andes mountains from Santiago, the capital of Chile.

Of all the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, abortion is legal only in Cuba and Guyana. In Puerto Rico, abortion is legal because U.S. laws and court decisions are enforced in that U.S. colony. In other countries abortion is considered a crime except under very limited circumstances. Complications from abortion account for 21 percent of maternal deaths in Latin America as a whole, and up to 50 percent of maternal mortality in some countries.  
 
 
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