Who We Are?

The Compañera Network is a space of regional coordination for feminist and lesbo-feminist organizations, networks, and collectives which accompany women, girls, and others who abort, so that they may do so in a manner that is safe, cared for, and free of violence. We are made up of 21 organizations, networks, and collectives spanning 15 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Accompanying those who abort is our political way of respecting the life and health of women and people who abort. We respond promptly and adequately to the various contexts of those who need to abort, taking into account their experience and their needs and with total respect for their decisions, recognizing their autonomy and strength.

We dispute colonial hegemonic medicine’s data and among ourselves, we produce data about how we accompany during the feminist abortion care process.

Our objective is the total decriminalization of abortion. This is why we fight for free abortion, without legal conditions and without time constraints. We also demand that the States desist their attempts to persecute companions, women, and people who abort.

We want abortion to never be considered a crime again.

Learn where we are

Mission

It is our aim to establish a place of strength, exchange, and coordination among collectives/networks/organizations of abortion companions in Latin America and the Caribbean: a place where we can join together, potentialize, and improve the way in which we accompany during medical abortions, and at the same time strategically impact debates of decrimminalization/legalization of abortion in the areas where each of us live.

Vision

Our vision is that Latin America and the Caribbean may be a region in which women and people who abort can do so with autonomy, accompanied by feminists who support free abortion and who accompany from a place of social justice, happiness, and pleasure.

Political Principles

The Compañera Network debates, dialogues, and collectively builds the political foundations that sustain it. Our meetings and networking share these principles:
1. We are companions from a feminist approach, without imposing legal conditions, without time constraints, and without adding obstacles to abortion

We are brought together by a feminist approach to comprehend abortion, accompanying those who abort and understanding abortion and the different ways to be a companion that each group in the Network is developing in each country.

We accompany from love and total respect for the autonomy of women and people with who abort, making use of active listening, not bureaucratizing abortion, that is: without legal conditions, without time constraints, without adding obstacles.

We affirm that women and people who abort are the experts of their own lives and are the protagonists of their abortion processes. We accompany from a horizontal relationship based on the needs of those who abort, while recognizing their own resources and agency.

We assume abortion to be an action of life and health care for women and people who abort, a a daily practice that we wish to be done without fear, without guilt, without dependencies and from pleasure.

2. We understand abortion from social justice, sexual, and reproductive perspectives
We recognize the experience of aborting as a situation traversed by the various realities in which women and people who abort are immersed. Therefore, understanding abortion from social, sexual, and reproductive justice allows us to accompany from an intersectional perspective that prioritizes the needs of people who belong to historically minoritized social sectors and/or those with conditions of vulnerability in terms of rights.
3. We build our own knowledge bases, situated in the experience of accompanying abortions

We recognize ourselves, among the women and people who abort who we accompany, as producers of knowledge by carrying out theory in practice. We question medical hegemony through information we generate in accompanying experiences.

We advocate for the right to information as a political tool that enables access to safe abortions and prioritizes autonomy over medical hegemony.

4. As a community, we collectively resist the system of domination and exploitation
We are committed to building community with women and people who abort that we accompany. We believe that abortion can be experienced in community and that the work of the Network strengthens a form of collective resistance to the system of domination and exploitation in which we live.

Our history

The Compañera Network comes from a process of feminist gatherings and complicities. We found each other in all corners of the region and combined our diverse and complex ways of being feminists and practicing feminism. Accompanying those who abort unites us; the drive to change everything unites us.
March 2017

We met

The first gathering of hotlines and networks of abortion companions from the region took place in Ecuador. In this meeting, various groups met for the first time. It was the space in which we first recognized and encountered each other, and we began to think about the possibility of grouping and getting together regionally as companions from Latin America and the Caribbean.
November 2017

XIV EFLAC, Montevideo, Uruguay

In a space organized outside of the official program of the 14th Feminist Gathering of Latin America and the Caribbean, abortion companions from Chile, Argentina, and Brazil reaffirmed the importance of connecting among groups, as well as the possibility of forming a meeting of abortion companions from the entire region.
July 2018

2nd Global Meeting of Safe Abortion Information Hotlines

Samsara, Ibis Reproductive Health, and Women Help Women convened the 2nd Global Meeting of Safe Abortion Information Hotlines (GHM) in Bali, Indonesia. In this gathering, various Latin American organizations of abortion companions decided to call the first gathering of companion groups of Latin Ameria and the Caribbean, creating the regional network of abortion companions.
September 2018

1st Gathering of the Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Network of Abortion Companions

We met in Chile to make our dreams into reality. In this meeting, we decided to create the Latin American and Caribbean Abortion Companion Feminist Network.
January 2020

2nd Gathering of the Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Network of Abortion Companions

We met in Lima, Peru to collectively construct our mission, vision, principles and the priorities which would define our future actions. In this meeting, the Network was made up of 21 groups from 15 countries. We hope that more groups of abortion companions will join us along the way.
Early 2021

Create a collective identity

The Network has achieved a collective identity. We call ourselves Compañera Network, as we all accompany each other, embracing life. Friends or strangers, partnering from one hemisphere to another, we are comrades.
March 2017

We met

The first gathering of hotlines and networks of abortion companions from the region took place in Ecuador. In this meeting, various groups met for the first time. It was the space in which we first recognized and encountered each other, and we began to think about the possibility of grouping and getting together regionally as companions from Latin America and the Caribbean.
November 2017

XIV EFLAC, Montevideo, Uruguay

In a space organized outside of the official program of the 14th Feminist Gathering of Latin America and the Caribbean, abortion companions from Chile, Argentina, and Brazil reaffirmed the importance of connecting among groups, as well as the possibility of forming a meeting of abortion companions from the entire region.
July 2018

2nd Global Meeting of Safe Abortion Information Hotlines

Samsara, Ibis Reproductive Health, and Women Help Women convened the 2nd Global Meeting of Safe Abortion Information Hotlines (GHM) in Bali, Indonesia. In this gathering, various Latin American organizations of abortion companions decided to call the first gathering of companion groups of Latin Ameria and the Caribbean, creating the regional network of abortion companions.
September 2018

1st Gathering of the Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Network of Abortion Companions

We met in Chile to make our dreams into reality. In this meeting, we decided to create the Latin American and Caribbean Abortion Companion Feminist Network.
January 2020

2nd Gathering of the Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Network of Abortion Companions

We met in Lima, Peru to collectively construct our mission, vision, principles and the priorities which would define our future actions. In this meeting, the Network was made up of 21 groups from 15 countries. We hope that more groups of abortion companions will join us along the way.
Early 2021

Create a collective identity

The Network has achieved a collective identity. We call ourselves Compañera Network, as we all accompany each other, embracing life. Friends or strangers, partnering from one hemisphere to another, we are comrades.

comunicaciones@redcompafeminista.org

contacto@redcompafeminista.org

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