Abortion Rights Activists Around the World Express Solidarity With Americans

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling on June 24, outrage and fear spread across the country as many American women faced a future with limited or no control over their reproductive choices. While some states maintained or even strengthened the right to abortion access, many others either passed laws to ban the procedure or made plans to do so.

Americans were not alone in their grief and anger. Abortion rights activists worldwide have watched with horror and dismay, especially since many had once seen Roe v. Wade as a beacon of hope and inspiration for abortion rights around the world. The move by the United States runs counter to current global trends. According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, “Over the past several decades, monumental gains have been made in securing women’s right to abortion, with nearly 50 countries liberalizing their abortion laws.”

Advocates from countries including Ireland, Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina are among those who have succeeded in getting abortion legalized in their countries in recent years. Women’s Media Center reached out to activists in these countries to get their perspectives on their own experiences on the long road to regain reproductive rights. They acknowledge that what works in one country may not work elsewhere, but there are universal strategies, such as protests and campaigns, that are effective in many different cultural contexts. Above all, their message is one of solidarity and determination.

“It is very sad for a lot of women around the world to see what was happening in the U.S.,” says Angie Contreras, a Mexican activist who is a member of the abortion rights group Mujeres Vivas, Mujeres Libres. Mexico’s Supreme Court effectively legalized abortion last September. “Especially knowing that I live in a country where before abortion was criminalized and knowing what it is like to be persecuted by a government for decisions over our own bodies. But I do believe that this sort of puts a fire under the women around the world and the women in the U.S. and allows us to take that rage that we have over this decision and put it into action.”

The concerns these activists have from the overturning of Roe reflect what women in their countries experienced before legalization, with women and providers serving prison time for abortion and high rates of unregulated illegal abortions.

Ailbhe Smyth is an Irish activist and feminist who founded the Women's Education, Research, and Resource Centre at University College Dublin. In 2018, she was a leader in the successful campaign for the repeal of her country’s Eighth Amendment, which made abortion illegal. She recalls that before legalization, women who could afford to traveled to Britain to access abortion care; she sees a parallel to the developing situation in the U.S., where people seeking an abortion will now have to cross state lines to access care.

Catalina de la Mar Calderón is the director of campaigns and advocacy programs at the Women's Equality Center of Colombia, a country that legalized abortion in early May, just weeks before Roe was overturned. She encourages U.S. activists to keep fighting. “I think this is the time to look beyond the differences and get together,” Calderón says. “My suggestion is, do not let the momentum go. This is the time to keep fighting. Let’s don’t give up. And as the Supreme Court has shown us, decisions can be reversed, right? And Congress, who make the decisions, they are not going to make the hard decisions unless they’re having pressure. We need to be the pressure the decision-makers need.”

Mariela Belski, the executive director of Amnesty International Argentina, acknowledges that setbacks are likely to happen, as they did in her country, when the Argentinian Senate failed to pass legislation legalizing abortion in 2018; they then succeeded in December 2020.

“That setback was a hard blow,” Belski says. “But it did not discourage us, but on the contrary consolidated an unstoppable green wave that redoubled its efforts and strategies.” The “green wave,” characterized by protesters waving green handkerchiefs, has grown, and the color green has become a symbol for abortion rights around the world. “That wave, in December 2020, in a very adverse scenario and in the middle of the pandemic, enshrined the right to abortion in law, recognizing that it was an imperative in terms of human rights and public health.”

Contreras encourages Americans to redouble efforts to educate others about the realities of abortion and try to erase the misinformation surrounding it. Smyth says that an effective tactic used in the Irish abortion rights campaign was working to get anti-abortionists to understand the woman’s point of view and why she might need an abortion. This is because opponents of abortion mainly focus on the fetus.

“It's reaching them emotionally that actually helps people to open up to the possibility of changing their minds,” Smyth says. “There is absolutely no doubt that helping people to understand why women have abortions … it is about seeking not to be cast into deepest poverty, not to be cast into misery, not to be letting their families down … But when you argue [for it] as a right, people don't see a woman, they don’t see a woman who needs something, they don't see a woman who will suffer if she doesn't have that necessity … I think that just bearing that principle in mind that it is always about a woman. And that's what you have to keep putting in front of people.”

Only a month after Dobbs, it is clear that the reversal of Roe is having catastrophic effects. Twenty-one states currently have partial or total abortion bans, although some are not being enforced pending litigation. There are reports of women being denied hospital care due to state abortion laws and of rape victims being denied care, including the 10-year-old girl in Ohio who had to travel to Indiana for the procedure. There are no laws preventing anyone from traveling out of state to get an abortion, but states like Missouri have pending legislation that would allow lawsuits against anyone who helps residents seeking an abortion elsewhere, including the abortion provider. The House has passed the Ensuring Access to Abortions Act, which would prohibit any woman or anyone assisting from being punished for seeking an abortion out of state, but it is not expected to be taken up by the Senate.

If there is something these four women all have to say to American women and allies as they fight for their rights in the aftermath of Dobbs, it is “Don’t give up.”

“Resilience is necessary,” Calderón says. “It might take six months, it might take six years, it might take 20. But whichever it is, we cannot give up. That’s when they win — when they don’t see us in the streets anymore, when they don’t hear us in the news anymore. That is when they win — when we give up.”

“This is a moment for all women from all parts of the world,” says Contreras. “We can't really let borders or countries separate [us in] this moment; it's a transnational movement. And from now, we need to learn from each other, get our experiences, learn about the struggle for abortion rights in different countries, and apply it here in the U.S. This is a struggle. One is the struggle of all, and we're all together in this fight.”