Abortion, Nationhood and Subjectivity - An Investigation into the Disruptive Potential of Contemporary Feminist Activism in Argentina

My research investigates contemporary abortion activism
in Argentina. Since 2015, Argentine feminism has had
growing global influence, and the recent legalisation of
abortion in Argentina, passed in December 2020, is
expected to have a trailblazing impact on reproductive
rights issues across Latin America. In practice, however,
abortion access will remain complicated and dependent on
pregnant people's class, race, location and corresponding
health care access. My project interrogates how the
increasing availability of misoprostol, a prescription drug
with abortive side-effects, and the use of the internet as a
political space, have enabled new forms of grassroots
abortion activism likely to be crucial to ensuring abortion
access. This activism builds on queer notions of pride and
alternative family and is spearheaded by activist-scholars
who explicitly aim to reposition people who abort as
capable of political action. This activist dimension has
attracted little attention to date. My interdisciplinary
research seeks to fill this gap. I will study how abortion
activists position those who abort as political subjects. I
will analyse groups' online appearances, their primary way
of reaching larger audiences, and interview activists. By
conceptualising transgressive social forces through affect
theory, I will investigate the emotional and unspoken
dimensions of abortion activism. This will promote
improved understandings of the persuasiveness of
contemporary feminist activism.