We are a Latin American and Caribbean network of feminist and lesbian feminist organizations, collectives, and networks who accompany women, adolescent girls and other people who abort.
We provide the possibility of inter-regional alliances and a platform for collaboration between organizations, both in the exchange and generation of knowledge, information and evidence. We aim We aim to be part of local and global political advocacy challenging the colonial medical hegemony, learning and teaching among ourselves how to practice safe, feminist abortions.
We accompany [women, girls and other people] in instances where patriarchal, sexual violence is perpetuated. We lift up our work in the midst of profound political, social and economic crises in the militarized and neo-liberalized territories where we live.
We ground our approaches in the experiences of those who have had abortions and recognize these women, adolescent girls, and human beings as strong and courageous, even in the face of daunting situations.
We recognize ancestral knowledge of abortion genealogy and we know that pharmaceuticals are a recent invention in comparison to the ancient practice of abortion.
We accompany and assign special meaning to our lived experiences and those of who we accompany. We accompany and transform human relationships. Through these experiences, we are building models and approaches to sustain us and which foreshadow other possible worlds to the precariousness that the System installs in us.
The political approach of accompaniment respects the life and health of women, not bureaucratizing abortions, through active listening, through face-to-face encounters. A loving accompaniment based on the needs of women, not pain/suffering, but based on total respect of their agency/decision-making.
We are part of feminist movements that advocate for legal abortion in our countries and our aim is the decriminalization of abortion so that abortion is never again considered a crime.
We want free abortion without restrictions or term/gestational limits.
We call on States to put an end to any attempt to persecute those who provide abortion accompaniment.
Political Principles
Principle 1.
Feminist ways of accompanying and understanding abortions bring us together, recognizing the diverse and different approaches that each and every collective is developing in their respective locations.
We provide accompaniment from a place of love and total respect for the autonomy of women and other people with the capacity to abort, using active listening, not bureaucratizing abortions, in effect, not imposing any limitations or restrictions on access or adding additional barriers.
Women are experts of their lives and the protagonists of their abortion processes. We provide accompaniment from a horizontal relationship based on their needs, recognizing their resources and agency.
We understand abortion as an act to care for the health and life of women and people with the capacity to abort, as a daily practice that we seek out without fear, without guilt, without dependence and with pleasure.
Principle 2.
We recognize the experience of abortion as a situation incorporating a range of lived realities of women and people with the capacity to abort, and therefore understand abortion from an intersectional social, sexual and reproductive justice perspective. This allows us to provide accompaniment from an intersectional perspective that prioritizes the needs of people from social sectors that have historically been marginalized or faced conditions of vulnerability.
Principle 3.
We recognize ourselves, along with the women and people with the ability/capacity to abort, as knowledge producers, developing theory based on praxis. We challenge the medical hegemony through the information we generate through our accompaniment experiences.
We promote the right to information as a political tool that enables access to safe abortion and prioritizes autonomy over medical hegemony.
Principle 4.
We are committed to building community with the women and people with the ability to abort that we accompany. We believe that the experience of abortion can be lived in community, the work of the network strengthens ways to jointly resist systems of domination and exploitation under which we live.
Regional Network Priorities.
In an exercise of collective dialogue and gathering, we define the priorities of the Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Network of Abortion Accompaniment in the short and medium term.
There are three principal priorities:
1) Strengthening the Regional Network
Focused on strengthening the regional network, starting with the network becoming a regular instance in each of the locations where there are national collectives/organizations/ networks.
Being part of this Regional Network allows us to develop joint strategies and collective responses, understanding that this process is not unilateral but is based on the possibility that all of us who make up the Network can contribute and have a sense of belonging.
2) We sustain us to sustain others/ We give each other accompaniment to accompany others
This priority refers to being able to generate spaces for exchange, joint learning and to strengthen the capacities of all local collectives / organizations / networks that make up the Regional Network, improving the way we provide accompaniment in our respective territories/countries.
It includes the Regional Network accompanying and engaging in policy and public advocacy in each country as opportunities or threats to abortion policy and legislation emerge.
It also refers to the process by which trust fosters mutual support, exchanges promote strength and the possibility to make visible, our regional reach to guarantee abortion in each of our respective countries.
3) Knowledge Generation
As the Regional Network we want to be in regional and global decision-making spaces where abortion is being discussed and debated, such as the revisions of the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. This component refers to being able to generate:
- Joint publications
- Systematization of regional data on abortion
- Generation of evidence, from our daily practice of providing medical abortion accompaniment.
- Knowledge generation that allows us to reclaim abortion as a natural and ordinary practice and create a positive discourse around it.
Mission:
Our mission is to provide a space for strengthening, sharing knowledge and collaborating among abortion accompaniment collectives/networks and organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean in order to build movement, strengthen and improve the way in which we support medical abortion while at the same time, strategically influencing the decriminalization/legalization of abortion debate in each of our countries.
Vision:
Our vision is that Latin America and the Caribbean become a region where women and other people who can abort can do so autonomously, accompanied by feminists that support free abortion and accompaniment from a perspective of social justice, joy, pleasure and enjoyment.
Short-term priority actions:
Certain priorities emerged from the 2020 Regional meeting in which we plan to focus on over the next two years. The Executive Group will be tasked with promoting these priority actions.
In the next Regional Network Meeting, we will conduct an evaluation of the progress towards priorities and new priority actions will be defined.
We detail below the priority actions that will guide the work of the Regional Network from 2020 to 2022.
Priority 1: Strengthening the Regional Network
- The construction of the collective identity of the Network, which allows us to position it both at the regional level and in each of the countries where we work.
- Creation of channels of internal communication, among the members of the Network.
- Improve referral strategies for women and other people who need abortions, within each of the countries where the Network has members.
Priority 2: Accompany us to provide accompaniment
- Formation of training spaces to strengthen knowledge around accompaniment in Q2 and Q3.
- Creation of spaces for exchange and strengthening on holistic security and protection for those providing abortion accompaniment.
- Accompaniment of political and public advocacy actions in each location where there are opportunities or threats to abortion policies.
Priority 3: Knowledge Generation
In the 2020 Meeting, no priority actions were defined for this component in the short-term, but it was decided that for these two years we will concentrate on the two previous priorities.
