Feminist disputes over abortion regulation in Argentina: the Supreme Court decision on F., A.L.

MARÍA EUGENIA MONTE

Bangkok

Congreso; Breaking Boundaries: Sexuality, Gender, Reproduction, Health and Rights; 2017

During the 2000s, women and feminist organizations struggles over abortion regulation in Argentina juridified, and displaced from the politicization of sexuality to legal discourses and state juridical institutions. Legal discourses, and particularly Courts, became sites of power struggle for women and feminist organizations, but also for conservative actors. Increasingly since 2005, women and feminist organizations and feminist lawyers assisted, accompanied and collaborated in the defence of non-punishable abortion judicial cases. Most of the struggles over non-punishable abortion at Courts, up to 2012, involved sexually abused pregnant women abortion practices that were delayed, impeded, denied, or criminalized. In one of these judicial cases the Supreme Court of the country decided on it on March 13th, 2012, the case F., A.L. s/ medida autosatisfactiva. In this decision, the Supreme Court pronounced on recurrent matters disputed on previous struggles over non-punishable abortion at Courts. This paper analyses the Supreme Court decision on non-punishable abortion regulation boundaries, medical and judicial practices, sexual abuse and medical control, state responsibility in providing access to non-punishable abortion practice in public healthcare system, and the conditions for accessing the practice. This paper also analyses the material effects of the Supreme Court decision, particularly the provincial Courts judicial backlash. The research strategy of inquiry for this paper is the case study, and the sources of information are legal documents presented at Court, provincial Court decisions