Stop and mobilization to ask for legal abortion, labor equality and the end of sexist violence

Mariana Iglesias

03/08/2020 - 16:59

• Clarín.com
• Society

"We live, free and indebted, we love each other, legal abortion now," thousands of women will be asking this Monday to stop their jobs and mobilize through the streets of Buenos Aires and all the cities in the country.

It is not the first strike of women. "If we are not worth producing without us," the posters say since 2017, when the first International Women's Unemployment took place. Feminist movements never celebrated Women's Day. And for a few years it is a date of struggle and claims, as could be seen in several countries of the world. The most impressive and numerous mobilization this Sunday was undoubtedly that of Chile.

"We are not worth" refers to general contempt: women are harassed, abused, violated, murdered. The "not worth" also speaks of the economic.

Women charge 29% less than men. And they don't reach the hierarchical positions. Hence the "wage gap", the "glass ceiling", the "sticky floor" . They are not slogans, they are certainties. The claim is that they end.

Undressed The debt that currently affects the country's economy has a direct and more profound impact on women. The feminization of poverty has been talked about for a long time , because unemployment is higher among women, because they are the mainstay in half of the most vulnerable households, because they are the ones who receive the lowest salaries, including the minimum wage .

Live . There are already 70 femicides this 2020. Almost 100 sons and daughters were left without their mothers because they were killed. Last year there had been more than 300 dead women , and they add more than 3,000 in the last decade.

Accounts are made: one femicide every 30 hours was said until last year; A femicide every 26 hours was months ago, a femicide every 12 hours was this week . Averages that have names: Brenda, Guadalupe, Octavia, Agustina. Ages: 29, 8, 39, 17. They were cut, burned, drowned, suffocated.

Nine out of ten murderers are known to their victims : their husbands, ex, boyfriends, neighbors. It is not insecurity. It's about power, control and submission. Femicide observatories have been publishing figures for years. NiUnaMeno s marches have been going on since 2015. But femicides increase.

The Marisel Zambrano Observatory of the Casa del Encuentro details that 33 of the 2019 femicides had previous complaints, 25 had home exclusion or prohibition of approach, 21 belonged or were former security forces. All these femicides could have been avoided . The rest too. Effective public policies, prevention campaigns, real investment. Those are the claims.

Free. "I want to walk without fear ... wear the clothes I want ..." the girls sing. The end of harassment, abuse, sexual violence, rape. Those are the claims.

Legal Abortion The same observatory accounts for 4 deaths as "state femicide . " They are women who died in clandestine abortions. In Argentina abortion remains penalized. "The existence of the criminal threat has not only been inefficient proving that the social evolution goes beyond the same norm. It has also condemned many women, generally of limited resources, to resort to abortive practices in the absolute secrecy, putting risk your health and sometimes your life itself, "President Alberto Fernández said in his opening speech to legislative sessions.

There he announced that he will present "a Bill on Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy that legalizes abortion in the initial time of pregnancy and allows women to access the health system when they make the decision to abort ." That day could be this Monday. The expectation is great. The project has similarities and differences with that of the National Campaign for Safe and Free Legal Abortion. The claim is that it be Law .

Beyond the president's decision, and the weight that an Executive project can have, even the votes of Congress are not enough for abortion to be law . And there are conservative and religious sectors that strongly oppose.

"We organize ourselves in Argentina and the world for the right to legal, safe and free abortion. We organize ourselves to denounce the cruelties and injustices of the patriarchal system that forces girls to be mothers and imposes maternity and domestic space as the only destination. We organize to end the secrecy and deaths due to unsafe abortions, "they say from the National Campaign for the Right to Safe and Free Legal Abortion.

"We unite and mobilize for our autonomy, for our desires and freedoms. Because Congress owes us a law that is a debt of democracy. These days of struggle will fill all countries, Latin America and the whole world with green scarves. Because our project is on the streets, a human rights project, a project for a just world, a life project and this year it will be Law! We unite and mobilize because Live and Free We Want! ", the communiqué of the Bell.

The mobilization will be this Monday from five in the afternoon. There will be several meeting points. The groups will go on Avenida de Mayo, from Plaza de Mayo to the Congress. In some jobs there is a cessation of tasks during these hours. In public and university organizations, there was a shock so that women could participate in the mobilizations. In the central act a document will be read, it will read: "Live, free, indebted, legal abortion now".