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SMNTY Classics: Abortion Activism in Argentina · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to stuff
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I've never told your protection of I Heart Radio. So
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: we have been talking a lot about abortion lately, and
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  Speaker 1: we are going to continue to do so in light
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: of what is going on with Throw the Weight, but
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: we were always talking about it even before that. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: And one thing that is very important to us, and
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  Speaker 1: I think we think I hope you agree, Samantha's very
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: important to the movement is recognizing the work people have
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: been doing. Absolutely absolutely so, even in protests we've seen
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  Speaker 1: here in the US, we have seen pieces of these
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  Speaker 1: movements from around the world influencing that and that's just
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: so important to recognize it. So we're going to be
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  Speaker 1: bringing back some Monday many as we've done about abortion
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  Speaker 1: protests around the world, are abortion movements around the world.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: We're going to start with this one about the legalization
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  Speaker 1: of abortion in argent Tina, So please enjoy. Hey, this
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: is Annie and Samantha, and welcome to stuff I'm never
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: told you your production of I Heart Radio. Okay, Annie, Yes,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: we're going to start off with a question. And it's
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: not our little lighthearted ones. It's not necessarily really really deep,
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  Speaker 1: but I did wonder growing up, what was your perception
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  Speaker 1: about abortion and reproductive justice. Oh that's a good one. Um. Well,
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  Speaker 1: as I've mentioned several times before on this show and recently,
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  Speaker 1: I did grow up in a pretty liberal family in
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  Speaker 1: a very conservative area. So I was um pro choice.
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  Speaker 1: I still that terminology still is weird to me out
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  Speaker 1: that whole thing, but um, I thought that it was
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  Speaker 1: a woman's a woman's right to choose, and that it
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  Speaker 1: was something that women should have access to. I was,
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  Speaker 1: I know I've mentioned before, I was on the debate team,
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  Speaker 1: and I I was the only person who would argue
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  Speaker 1: that abortion should be a thing and you would not
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  Speaker 1: believe like its tactics you see in the Republican Party
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  Speaker 1: now against it that these like middle schoolers leveled against me,
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  Speaker 1: But I was. I it made me nervous because there
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  Speaker 1: was such vitriologic, like strong feelings about it. So I
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  Speaker 1: wasn't super I didn't broadcast it a lot um and
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: I did have like but I like these I I
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: don't know that I had realistic Um, now that I
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: know more about abortion, I'm not sure that my timeline
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: was very realistic because I was like definitely before this time,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: you know, and I'm not sure that that was accurate
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: at all or what I really thought, but it became
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  Speaker 1: a thing. Like I became known for it, and people
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  Speaker 1: would either attack me over it or they would get
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: really aggressive in their questioning about like why I thought it,
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  Speaker 1: And like even my friend group now that I still have,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: they would it would be this thing like we would
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: not talk about because I felt like they maybe not
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: looked down on me, but they really kind of disturbed
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: because we were in a very conservative town and that's
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  Speaker 1: what they were hearing. They've changed like at that time, right, Yeah, Yeah,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: I mean I would definitely have been one of those
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: people because I we've mentioned it before because we've talked
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  Speaker 1: about abortion a lot on our show, uh, and of
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: course it is something that we want to talk about
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  Speaker 1: and continue to talk about because it's not just the
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  Speaker 1: whole level of you know, the conversation of abortion, but
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  Speaker 1: it's a whole level of um taking away the freedoms
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  Speaker 1: and choices of women. And that's kind of how I
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: had to rethink because of growing up. I was absolutely
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  Speaker 1: uh anti abortion, that was my perception because a not
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: only was I told I was saved from abortion because
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: I'm adopted, but be because of my very very conservative
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  Speaker 1: religious parents who sees that as a focal point of
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: the biggest issue. And we've talked about this many times,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Like I think we talked about before with my mom
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  Speaker 1: and I got into a really heated argument at a
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  Speaker 1: cracker barrel um and this was one of the biggest
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  Speaker 1: points of contention, to the point that we couldn't talk
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  Speaker 1: and we both left crying. And that was probably one
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: of the most heartbreaking moments for me. And it's not
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: that I'm necessarily like, I still have moments where I
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: catch myself being very antib not anti abortion, but and
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: like thinking that manner. I guess it's to say, it's
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  Speaker 1: hard to let go of what is indoctrinated into you,
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  Speaker 1: especially when you're being told this is who you are,
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  Speaker 1: and this is how you were, this is why you're alive,
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  Speaker 1: essentially because you're the alternative choice to abortion. But on
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  Speaker 1: top of that, you know, just kind of unraveling the
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  Speaker 1: idea that a woman's purity and responsibilit and whole in
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  Speaker 1: conceiving it is also all part of this and so
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  Speaker 1: therefore we are the biggest sinners of all, you know,
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  Speaker 1: if this is how we believe and overall, I've tried
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  Speaker 1: to argue it with my family, where it's like, you know,
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  Speaker 1: it's a conversation of do you trust your daughters? Do
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  Speaker 1: you trust your family to make the right decision for them?
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  Speaker 1: And it's this whole big thing. Of course, I am
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  Speaker 1: very much on the other side of this now, and
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  Speaker 1: I'm very much UM because yeah, pro choice. It's the
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  Speaker 1: best way I can say, because it's not as we've
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  Speaker 1: talked about it. This is everything about controlling women more
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  Speaker 1: so than anything else. Is not about saving babies or
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  Speaker 1: saving lives. It's not about you know, the whole term
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  Speaker 1: of pro life needs to be thrown out the window
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  Speaker 1: because as we've seen in our administration, that's not what
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  Speaker 1: it's necessarily about. UM. And again, I worked in social
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  Speaker 1: work for so long because there's this level of debt
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  Speaker 1: that I felt because of rhetoric like this and an
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  Speaker 1: understanding that I was like, Wow, this is messed up,
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  Speaker 1: because why am I the only one who's getting paid
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: less and mental wage to care about these lives that
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  Speaker 1: were so like intense on saving. And don't get me wrong,
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  Speaker 1: of course we want to protect life, but true life
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  Speaker 1: and life. The whole conversation of conception and all of
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  Speaker 1: that is the bigger point of science. Oh, there's so
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  Speaker 1: many things that we can talk about. But and and
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  Speaker 1: the reason I was thinking about this today, we are
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: specifically talking about Argentina, and uh, we are celebrating with
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  Speaker 1: them as the giant victory of our family and Argentina
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  Speaker 1: and all the people of Argentina can celebrate the legalization
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  Speaker 1: of abortion as of December twenty twenty um. And for them,
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  Speaker 1: it's been a long and hard and drawn out battle
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  Speaker 1: and we've seen continue activists even talking about and celebrating,
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  Speaker 1: still understanding that it's a bigger battle to come. But yeah,
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  Speaker 1: so we want to talk a little bit about what
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  Speaker 1: happened and to celebrate with them, right. So, on December eleven,
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  Speaker 1: the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Bill was passed by the
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Chamber of Deputies, which is the lower house, with a
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  Speaker 1: vote of one and thirty one to one and seventeen
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  Speaker 1: and was sent to the upper house, the Senate, which
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  Speaker 1: passed on December by a vote of thirty eight to
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  Speaker 1: twenty nine and was passed by the President Alberto Fernandez.
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  Speaker 1: The law legalizes all abortion up to fourteen weeks of pregnancy,
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  Speaker 1: so the previous law only allowed to abortion access in
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  Speaker 1: case of a pregnancy as a result of rape or
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  Speaker 1: if it endangered the health and life of a woman
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  Speaker 1: and was punishable without to fifteen years of jail. Yeah. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: And we can't talk about the success of reproductive justice
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  Speaker 1: in Argentina without talking about the boots on the ground
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  Speaker 1: groups who have pushed and fought within that country. Organizations
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  Speaker 1: like La Collectiva Fimnista, the Yalta and Collectiva Una Maynos
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  Speaker 1: have been pushing for the rights and protection of women
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  Speaker 1: and the marginalized community right. So in twenty fifteen, thousands
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  Speaker 1: of Argentinians marched the spotlight the injustice and Violence against
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  Speaker 1: Women or it was called hashtag the Una Mentals, which
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: grew into a movement that expanded into the larger issues
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  Speaker 1: of women's rights, including reproductive justice. A bill was introduced
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  Speaker 1: in but it was defeated in the Senate though it
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: had passed in the lower house. As the administration changed,
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  Speaker 1: President Fernandez showed support for the bill and even wore
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  Speaker 1: a green tie, which was the symbol of the abortion
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  Speaker 1: rights movement known as the Green Wave, and he said
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  Speaker 1: that the previous law unfairly punished His quote vulnerable and
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  Speaker 1: poor women, right. And I think that's a big conversation
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  Speaker 1: of who had access and who it really affected. Um.
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  Speaker 1: And according to a report by the Human Rights Watch,
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  Speaker 1: nearly forty women and children in Argentina were hospitalized as
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  Speaker 1: a result of unsafe, clandestine abortions or miscarriages. So this
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  Speaker 1: included at least six thousand of them being between the
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  Speaker 1: ages of ten through nineteen. So this bill uses inclusive
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: language and thanks to the activism of transactivists like Camilla Fernandez. Um.
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  Speaker 1: These activists made sure to use language such as quote
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: people with ability to be pregnant, right, um And just
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: kind of as we were talking about earlier, how you
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  Speaker 1: know you're indoctrinated with so much, especially growing up, whether
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: it's through religion or what not. A life for me,
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  Speaker 1: it was religion not necessarily the same as Argentina because
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  Speaker 1: we are very Southern Baptist, but very along the strict lines.
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  Speaker 1: Argentina is heavily influenced by Catholicism, as in fact, one
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  Speaker 1: report shows at least of Argentineans still identify as Roman Catholic. Um.
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  Speaker 1: And the bill has been contested by many anti abortion groups,
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  Speaker 1: including the fact that the Senate was encouraged by the
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  Speaker 1: Church of Argentina to vote against it. And just like everywhere,
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  Speaker 1: we've been talking about this a lot over around the
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  Speaker 1: world lately, there's still a lot to do in making
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  Speaker 1: sure to keep reproductive justice secure, but but seeing victories
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  Speaker 1: like this is really encouraging, especially knowing and witnessing the
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  Speaker 1: many activists who have tirelessly fought for these things and
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  Speaker 1: continue to And as we always say in these international episodes,
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  Speaker 1: we would love to hear from listeners who are in Argentina,
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  Speaker 1: who have experience, who have seen these things, who have
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: helped make these things possible, and it is very inspiring.
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  Speaker 1: Um so yeah, we would love to hear from you. Uh.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: You can email us our emails, Stuff Media, mom Stuff
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: at iheartmia dot com. You can also find us on
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: Twitter at mom Stuff podcast or on Instagram at Stuff
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: I've Never Told You. Thanks as always to our superproducer
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Andrew Howard. Oh, thank you, and thanks to you for listening.
• 10:45
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