WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:04.160 Hey, their dear listener. It's Marie Noo Hossan and today 2 00:00:04.200 --> 00:00:08.240 we're sharing with you episode two of the Network. It's 3 00:00:08.280 --> 00:00:11.320 a new series that Latino USA co produced with NPR's 4 00:00:11.360 --> 00:00:15.200 Embedded podcast. Now, if you haven't listened to the first episode, 5 00:00:15.320 --> 00:00:18.400 of course, I recommend that you do that first. Check 6 00:00:18.400 --> 00:00:21.080 it out on the embedded feed or listen to last 7 00:00:21.079 --> 00:00:25.720 week's Latino USA podcast. In the first episode, Latino USA 8 00:00:25.800 --> 00:00:30.960 producers Marta Martinez and Victoria Estrada traveled to Brazil in 9 00:00:31.040 --> 00:00:35.680 order to trace the roots of an unexpected discovery, an 10 00:00:35.800 --> 00:00:39.600 ulcer pill that could be used to have safe abortions 11 00:00:39.880 --> 00:00:44.560 without a doctor. A network of Brazilian women started whispering 12 00:00:44.720 --> 00:00:49.519 about that pill, Cytotech. It's the commercial name of Miso Prosto, 13 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:53.480 which is also known as Miso. But that's not where 14 00:00:53.479 --> 00:00:58.000 the story ends, because soon word of that discovery would 15 00:00:58.040 --> 00:01:01.319 cross borders, and it brought the network into a new 16 00:01:01.400 --> 00:01:04.760 era in which women were using new tactics to get 17 00:01:04.760 --> 00:01:07.880 the word out and they started working on a much 18 00:01:08.120 --> 00:01:11.560 larger scale. Mittoria and Martha are going to take it 19 00:01:11.600 --> 00:01:15.400 from here. This is episode two of the network. 20 00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:20.319 Saintotech. That was the name that some Brazilian doctors started 21 00:01:20.319 --> 00:01:24.080 calling sidetech in the nineteen eighties because far fewer women 22 00:01:24.200 --> 00:01:29.200 were dying from abortion complications thanks to this ulcer pill, 23 00:01:29.240 --> 00:01:33.800 but not everyone was ready to canonize it. During the nineties, 24 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:37.480 the Brazilian government cracked down on side attack the commercial 25 00:01:37.560 --> 00:01:42.480 name of misoprostol, or Misto for short. Eventually, the government 26 00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:46.800 banned the medication and labeled it a controlled substance, which 27 00:01:46.840 --> 00:01:50.200 meant miso had restrictions similar to what dangerous drugs like 28 00:01:50.280 --> 00:01:55.040 fentanyl now have, and conditions got harsh for women who 29 00:01:55.040 --> 00:01:59.480 had abortions. The government targeted them more and more arrested them. 30 00:01:59.520 --> 00:02:03.080 In charge is distributing me so and what prosecutors called 31 00:02:03.400 --> 00:02:04.520 self induced abortion. 32 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:05.840 Oh my fashion. 33 00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:10.359 A cleaning lady has been arrested. She suspected of having 34 00:02:10.400 --> 00:02:11.520 a clandestine abortion. 35 00:02:15.840 --> 00:02:19.520 But despite official attempts to control me so, the secret 36 00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:26.040 was out Reproactive health workers in Latin America heard about 37 00:02:26.040 --> 00:02:28.840 the pill when they traveled. Some people got some from Columbia, 38 00:02:28.840 --> 00:02:31.240 and then some people got some from Brazil from a 39 00:02:31.240 --> 00:02:37.880 Peruvian city in the Amazon jungle. And she said, here 40 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:42.400 we use a bill, And I said, what bill is that? 41 00:02:43.320 --> 00:02:48.000 Two huge feminist gatherings across Latin America called quintros, where 42 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:50.760 women chatted about it in the hallways. 43 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:53.839 We were in a group talking and they said. 44 00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:58.960 Look, we've been using Cytottech and it's working well. 45 00:03:00.040 --> 00:03:02.560 Part of the pill was moving out of Brazil to 46 00:03:02.639 --> 00:03:08.000 countries where abortion was also mostly banned and deeply stigmatized. 47 00:03:07.560 --> 00:03:11.000 And so we were just like, well, well, how do 48 00:03:11.040 --> 00:03:11.480 we use. 49 00:03:11.400 --> 00:03:14.040 This activists who are getting their hands on me? So 50 00:03:14.280 --> 00:03:19.960 saw its potential widespread access to safe abortions, but to 51 00:03:20.040 --> 00:03:23.639 make that happen, they needed to get organized, which sparked 52 00:03:23.639 --> 00:03:25.280 a whole new set of questions. 53 00:03:25.720 --> 00:03:30.200 How could they talk about something that had been almost unspeakable, 54 00:03:31.040 --> 00:03:37.200 and even if they did, was talking enough. This episode, 55 00:03:37.320 --> 00:03:41.720 we're going to Ecuador, Argentina, and Mexico, all places where 56 00:03:41.760 --> 00:03:44.800 the women who make up this diffuse network took on 57 00:03:44.880 --> 00:03:50.160 these questions, teaming up, challenging each other, sometimes even breaking 58 00:03:50.200 --> 00:03:56.360 the law to change it. I'm Marta MARTINEV, I'm Victoria Estrada, 59 00:03:56.800 --> 00:03:59.840 and this is the network A serious about the diy 60 00:03:59.880 --> 00:04:03.320 me that took safe abortions out of the clinic and 61 00:04:03.400 --> 00:04:05.000 the women who made it happen. 62 00:04:07.160 --> 00:04:16.200 Episode two, Breaking Bread the activist in Latin America who 63 00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:20.480 knew about Miso had a problem. Abortion was highly criminalized, 64 00:04:20.839 --> 00:04:24.040 it was stigmatized. How could they get women access to 65 00:04:24.120 --> 00:04:27.479 something illegal, something that was shrouded in shame. 66 00:04:28.080 --> 00:04:31.200 The obvious option was to keep the conversation and their 67 00:04:31.200 --> 00:04:36.440 actions hidden, whispering sister to sister, and that's basically what 68 00:04:36.600 --> 00:04:38.279 happened for more than a decade. 69 00:04:38.839 --> 00:04:41.640 But in two thousand and eight, activists in Latin America 70 00:04:41.720 --> 00:04:47.400 took a totally different tack. In the middle of Quito, Ecuador, 71 00:04:47.520 --> 00:04:51.919 there's a statue of a virgin lavir ghindl Panicido. She's 72 00:04:52.200 --> 00:04:55.560 slightly taller than Rio di Janeto's famous Christ the Redeemer. 73 00:04:56.040 --> 00:05:00.200 She has wings spread out like an angel. One day, 74 00:05:00.320 --> 00:05:03.280 a group of women decided to pull a stunt. They 75 00:05:03.320 --> 00:05:06.440 were a mix of Ecuadorian activists and activists from Women 76 00:05:06.520 --> 00:05:10.640 on Waves, an abortion axis organization based in the Netherlands. 77 00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:14.839 They plotted how to get to the statue's balcony without 78 00:05:14.839 --> 00:05:15.719 attracting attention. 79 00:05:16.800 --> 00:05:20.200 There are two guards there, so we need some beautiful 80 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:22.159 blonze to distract them. 81 00:05:22.400 --> 00:05:25.920 A twenty fourteen documentary called Vessel recorded their efforts. 82 00:05:26.279 --> 00:05:28.360 We are occupying the Virgin let a lot of women. 83 00:05:31.760 --> 00:05:34.839 They hung a big white banner on the balcony of 84 00:05:34.880 --> 00:05:39.440 the Virgin Statue. The banner said safe abortion with a 85 00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:43.800 phone number. That number was for the first abortion hotline 86 00:05:43.839 --> 00:05:49.520 in Latin America. The documentary shows them getting nearly eighty 87 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:51.800 calls within the first few hours. 88 00:05:52.160 --> 00:05:55.719 Hello saloons. 89 00:05:59.760 --> 00:06:02.760 This idea for a hotline and the stunt promoting it 90 00:06:02.920 --> 00:06:06.480 through the Latin American network into a new, more public era. 91 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:11.040 They reached thousands of women this way. Their work was bold, 92 00:06:11.360 --> 00:06:15.960 it was organized, and maybe most importantly, it was replicable. 93 00:06:16.600 --> 00:06:19.760 Women in other countries had been watching what happened in Ecuador, 94 00:06:20.360 --> 00:06:20.720 and a. 95 00:06:20.720 --> 00:06:25.080 Year later Argentina started its own hotline, and so initial. 96 00:06:25.960 --> 00:06:29.120 In the beginning, the hot line was so bare bones 97 00:06:29.640 --> 00:06:33.359 the view of the We had a small backpack with 98 00:06:33.400 --> 00:06:34.919 the Nokia eleven hundred. 99 00:06:36.680 --> 00:06:38.360 Militian and notebooks and. 100 00:06:38.360 --> 00:06:41.480 Flash cards and a process we had built rigorously. 101 00:06:42.200 --> 00:06:45.280 This is Anamins, one of the first volunteers of the 102 00:06:45.400 --> 00:06:49.400 Argentinian helpline. She was part of the collective Lesbians and 103 00:06:49.440 --> 00:06:55.000 Feminists for Abortion Decriminalization. She and I talked in her 104 00:06:55.040 --> 00:06:58.080 living room in Buenos Aires, with her cat sitting on 105 00:06:58.120 --> 00:07:05.480 her lap. It was starting to face. She told me 106 00:07:05.520 --> 00:07:07.880 that when they started the helpline in the summer of 107 00:07:07.880 --> 00:07:11.400 two thousand and nine, they were just a dozen volunteers. 108 00:07:11.880 --> 00:07:15.640 They didn't climb a statue. Instead, they put up posters 109 00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:19.200 and stickers all over Buenos Aires. They were on TV 110 00:07:19.520 --> 00:07:27.200 where they shared their phone number AKINCE, and they had 111 00:07:27.200 --> 00:07:37.760 a weekly radio show on the channel Agent. Pretty Soon 112 00:07:38.040 --> 00:07:40.000 the helpline was flooded with calls. 113 00:07:41.800 --> 00:07:45.760 Demand was four more. It was always for a lot more. 114 00:07:46.440 --> 00:07:50.040 Volunteers gave callers step by step information on how to 115 00:07:50.080 --> 00:07:51.120 self manage an abortion. 116 00:07:51.200 --> 00:07:54.640 With MISO and Argentina, no one had ever done what 117 00:07:54.720 --> 00:07:59.280 this collective was doing, speaking so openly about abortions and 118 00:07:59.320 --> 00:08:01.920 how to do it on your own. Not everyone was 119 00:08:01.960 --> 00:08:02.640 happy about it. 120 00:08:03.160 --> 00:08:06.480 I said, do we have to do this so public? 121 00:08:06.920 --> 00:08:07.600 You are nuts. 122 00:08:08.200 --> 00:08:12.440 This is Mariana Romero, the executive director of STATIS, the 123 00:08:12.520 --> 00:08:16.960 Center for State and Society Studies. She's a prominent reproductive 124 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:21.360 health researcher and advocate for abortion rights in Argentina. Marianna 125 00:08:21.400 --> 00:08:25.160 and other feminists worried that the helpline could inadvertently reduce 126 00:08:25.240 --> 00:08:25.960 access to me. 127 00:08:26.080 --> 00:08:29.560 So you are going to make the pharmaceutical company that 128 00:08:29.840 --> 00:08:32.680 produced mysoposal take it out of that market. 129 00:08:33.640 --> 00:08:36.719 That wasn't the only risk of their work. The helpline 130 00:08:36.760 --> 00:08:41.280 was operating in uncharted territory since abortion was mostly banned. 131 00:08:41.440 --> 00:08:44.360 The volunteers worried any work they did on abortion could 132 00:08:44.400 --> 00:08:47.080 put them or the women they helped in jail. But 133 00:08:47.160 --> 00:08:51.240 as the years passed, no helpline volunteers were ever arrested. 134 00:08:52.679 --> 00:08:55.199 And so they got more provocative with the way they 135 00:08:55.200 --> 00:08:59.920 talked about abortion. A year after launching the helpline, they 136 00:09:00.120 --> 00:09:03.080 printed a manual explaining how to self manage an abortion 137 00:09:03.360 --> 00:09:08.559 by taking miso without a doctor. It's thorough, more than 138 00:09:08.559 --> 00:09:13.360 one hundred pages long. The cover is all pink, with 139 00:09:13.559 --> 00:09:17.160 two big rainbows and a bunch of bills with smiley 140 00:09:17.200 --> 00:09:19.240 faces and on the back. 141 00:09:23.520 --> 00:09:25.480 On the back, I had a picture of a Barbie 142 00:09:25.520 --> 00:09:26.840 and a huge rainbow. 143 00:09:27.240 --> 00:09:31.040 She's in a pink convertible with sunglasses and a glamorous 144 00:09:31.040 --> 00:09:32.280 scarf over her head. 145 00:09:35.559 --> 00:09:38.040 And in a fun fun it said Barbie had to go. 146 00:09:40.360 --> 00:09:41.840 It was awesome, Barbie said. 147 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:46.800 Anna says women were hungry for this information. 148 00:09:48.600 --> 00:09:51.440 It was a best seller. I had two printings of 149 00:09:51.679 --> 00:09:53.400 ten thousand copies each. 150 00:09:58.800 --> 00:10:02.160 Anna like a lot of the early helpline volunteers is 151 00:10:02.200 --> 00:10:06.080 a lesbian. She saw echoes of her own experience in 152 00:10:06.160 --> 00:10:09.600 the shame and stigma that women faced when they wanted 153 00:10:09.640 --> 00:10:13.240 an abortion. She says the helpline and the manual were 154 00:10:13.320 --> 00:10:15.559 driven by a lesbian philosophy. 155 00:10:15.920 --> 00:10:20.000 The now closet, refusing to be in the closet no 156 00:10:20.160 --> 00:10:23.559 stigma of getting out there and saying yes, we're. 157 00:10:23.400 --> 00:10:28.400 Here, being public was one pillar of the helpline strategy. 158 00:10:29.000 --> 00:10:32.680 The other was relying on science. Both the manual and 159 00:10:32.720 --> 00:10:35.840 the script that the helpline volunteers used were based on 160 00:10:35.880 --> 00:10:37.000 scientific research. 161 00:10:37.920 --> 00:10:40.719 Starting in the nineties, researchers from around the world had 162 00:10:40.720 --> 00:10:43.880 taken an interest in what Latin American activists had been doing. 163 00:10:44.720 --> 00:10:47.240 They ran studies on women taking miso to end their 164 00:10:47.280 --> 00:10:50.880 pregnancies in places all over the globe, from Africa to 165 00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:55.360 Southeast Asia. Sometimes researchers worked in partnership with the activist. 166 00:10:56.080 --> 00:10:58.480 Over and over. They found that using miso in this 167 00:10:58.520 --> 00:11:02.040 way was safe and effective, and they developed best practices 168 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:05.560 for it. Their research led the World Health Organization to 169 00:11:05.679 --> 00:11:08.800 add miso to its Essential Medicines list in two thousand 170 00:11:08.800 --> 00:11:13.520 and five. Helpline volunteers cited this body of research on 171 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:17.520 their calls, and it gave them credibility. By the twenty tens, 172 00:11:17.840 --> 00:11:21.280 the helpline and the manual were disseminating all that scientific 173 00:11:21.320 --> 00:11:24.640 information to tens of thousands of women in Argentina. 174 00:11:25.600 --> 00:11:28.880 Anna herself was able to help thousands of women through 175 00:11:28.920 --> 00:11:33.680 the helpline, but sometimes as she spoke to women, Anna 176 00:11:33.760 --> 00:11:34.800 wanted to stay in touch. 177 00:11:37.679 --> 00:11:41.120 If a specific story affected me and made me anxious 178 00:11:41.320 --> 00:11:45.079 and I wanted to stay involved, a colleague would say, no, no, 179 00:11:46.200 --> 00:11:49.040 it's not your role. We didn't have the capacity, and 180 00:11:49.320 --> 00:11:53.160 in political terms, that wasn't our project. 181 00:11:55.600 --> 00:11:58.640 But other activists were concerned. They were aware of all 182 00:11:58.679 --> 00:12:02.600 the hype around abortion health lines, but skeptical about the approach. 183 00:12:05.880 --> 00:12:07.839 How do you know for sure that those women are 184 00:12:07.880 --> 00:12:12.120 not at risk? You gave them information and then what no. 185 00:12:12.160 --> 00:12:12.920 Less concilio. 186 00:12:13.160 --> 00:12:15.840 Did she get appeals or didn't she? Did she end 187 00:12:15.920 --> 00:12:19.800 up in the hospital? Did she do something wrong? You 188 00:12:19.880 --> 00:12:21.280 actually don't know anything. 189 00:12:22.520 --> 00:12:25.760 This is Veronica Cruz who goes by Verto. She's an 190 00:12:25.800 --> 00:12:29.480 activist in Mexico doing something completely different than the helplines, 191 00:12:30.520 --> 00:12:37.280 something that would push the envelope much further. After the break, 192 00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:39.800 we follow Vetro to Mexico. 193 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:53.000 The helplines, the Barbie manual. All of it was aimed 194 00:12:53.040 --> 00:12:56.240 at spreading the word about Miso and changing how people 195 00:12:56.280 --> 00:12:57.480 were talking about abortion. 196 00:12:58.200 --> 00:13:01.040 But Veronica, who you heard for the break and who 197 00:13:01.080 --> 00:13:05.040 goes vi Vero didn't think spreading information was enough. She 198 00:13:05.240 --> 00:13:08.600 used a different strategy in the feminist collective she started 199 00:13:08.600 --> 00:13:12.280 in Mexico. The collective is called Las Libres, which means 200 00:13:12.559 --> 00:13:13.080 the free. 201 00:13:13.240 --> 00:13:17.360 Las libres is maybe de la compagna Minto's maybe deloiquatro 202 00:13:17.480 --> 00:13:18.559 cie Las. 203 00:13:18.440 --> 00:13:21.360 Libres is my life. A companiamentto is my life. I 204 00:13:21.400 --> 00:13:22.839 can do it twenty four to seven. 205 00:13:23.400 --> 00:13:26.319 A companiamento. That's the name of her approach. 206 00:13:27.400 --> 00:13:32.520 Usually people translate a companiamento as accompaniment. It's not a 207 00:13:32.640 --> 00:13:36.520 word you use in English very often, but in Spanish 208 00:13:36.920 --> 00:13:39.960 you hear it all the time. It can mean being 209 00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:44.600 with someone but also supporting them or just keeping them company. 210 00:13:45.720 --> 00:13:47.920 I love the root of the word, which comes from 211 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:51.360 Latin companies. It means the people you break bread with, 212 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:54.079 your companions, the people you trust. 213 00:13:55.480 --> 00:13:58.640 And for abortion, it's come to mean being there during 214 00:13:58.679 --> 00:14:03.280 the whole process, from beginning to end, regardless of the legal. 215 00:14:03.160 --> 00:14:08.640 Risks based on our reporting. Veto's collective Las Liveres, was 216 00:14:08.760 --> 00:14:11.880 the first group in Latin America and possibly the world, 217 00:14:12.040 --> 00:14:19.920 to start doing accompanimento with miso why not Positions? I 218 00:14:20.040 --> 00:14:23.520 visited Veto last fall at the Las Liveres office in Juanajuato, 219 00:14:23.920 --> 00:14:28.920 a city in central Mexico. Wow, stovill la vista. Their 220 00:14:29.000 --> 00:14:32.200 office is more homey than corporate. It's in a three 221 00:14:32.280 --> 00:14:34.320 story house that's nestled into the hills. 222 00:14:36.560 --> 00:14:37.600 Akisi Yea. 223 00:14:39.040 --> 00:14:42.160 Veto founded lasire Is nearly a decade before any of 224 00:14:42.200 --> 00:14:46.120 the helplines started. At the time, abortion in Mexico was 225 00:14:46.320 --> 00:14:49.680 essentially banned in the state where Veto lives. The only 226 00:14:49.800 --> 00:14:53.480 exception was for women who were raped, but even in 227 00:14:53.560 --> 00:14:57.280 those cases, hospitals often denied women the right to the procedure. 228 00:14:57.840 --> 00:15:00.400 So Vedo was working with a Gayna college is to 229 00:15:00.480 --> 00:15:04.680 help women who'd been raped get legal abortions, and in 230 00:15:04.760 --> 00:15:08.040 two thousand, this doctor, like a growing number of doctors 231 00:15:08.040 --> 00:15:12.240 around the world, started to use miso for abortions. Veto 232 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:14.760 remembers the first time she saw the doctor give a 233 00:15:14.800 --> 00:15:15.440 woman miso. 234 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:19.960 I was like, what, no way. 235 00:15:20.640 --> 00:15:24.200 It was nothing like a surgical abortion, and Veto had 236 00:15:24.240 --> 00:15:26.760 a realization I mean I. 237 00:15:26.800 --> 00:15:29.720 Can do it cost Yes, I can just buy the 238 00:15:29.760 --> 00:15:32.200 pills tell the woman how to use them. That was 239 00:15:32.360 --> 00:15:33.920 like an incredible discovery for me. 240 00:15:35.400 --> 00:15:38.160 Not long after, a woman came to the last Liveless 241 00:15:38.200 --> 00:15:39.160 office Medico. 242 00:15:40.680 --> 00:15:43.200 She told me I'm not a rape victim, but I 243 00:15:43.320 --> 00:15:44.880 also want to interrupt. 244 00:15:44.720 --> 00:15:48.680 Interrupt her pregnancy. This woman didn't qualify for legal abortion 245 00:15:48.840 --> 00:15:52.240 in Mexico because she wasn't a rape survivor. So Veto 246 00:15:52.280 --> 00:15:53.400 didn't send her to the doctor. 247 00:15:53.640 --> 00:15:54.080 And I think. 248 00:15:55.760 --> 00:15:57.120 Victim Ada lession I. 249 00:15:57.160 --> 00:15:59.200 Said, we don't have to tell anyone if she was 250 00:15:59.360 --> 00:16:02.240 or wasn't a victim, that it's going to stay here 251 00:16:02.360 --> 00:16:02.960 between us. 252 00:16:07.320 --> 00:16:10.240 Veto decided to accompany the woman through the whole process, 253 00:16:10.520 --> 00:16:14.800 even though it was risky. Where Vero lived, any method 254 00:16:14.840 --> 00:16:17.440 of ending a pregnancy that wasn't a result of rape 255 00:16:17.840 --> 00:16:20.920 carried a prison sentence for the woman and anyone who 256 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:26.560 helped her. But unlike in Brazil, in Mexico, misa was 257 00:16:26.600 --> 00:16:30.080 easy to get. Even though you technically needed a prescription, 258 00:16:30.560 --> 00:16:33.640 you could often get it over the counter. So Veto 259 00:16:33.680 --> 00:16:36.720 told the woman to just go buy the pills, and 260 00:16:36.960 --> 00:16:39.320 she did. She got the miso and went home. 261 00:16:39.480 --> 00:16:42.600 Sando I was always. 262 00:16:42.360 --> 00:16:46.240 Monitoring her for any complications. Even though Veto had seen 263 00:16:46.400 --> 00:16:49.400 how the pills work, how easy it was to use them, 264 00:16:50.040 --> 00:16:52.800 she says it was nerve wracking to support someone through 265 00:16:52.800 --> 00:16:54.680 an abortion without a doctor. 266 00:16:55.240 --> 00:16:59.560 Then, so I slept with my cel phone on my 267 00:16:59.760 --> 00:17:03.160 chest all the time, like in case it rank or something. 268 00:17:04.280 --> 00:17:07.600 The next day, the woman went to a doctor who 269 00:17:07.880 --> 00:17:13.480 confirmed her pregnancy had ended without any complications. Veto's first 270 00:17:13.520 --> 00:17:22.160 time doing accompaniamento had gone smoothly. After that, when someone 271 00:17:22.280 --> 00:17:25.040 contacted las Levitz for an abortion and they were not 272 00:17:25.280 --> 00:17:28.919 rape survivors, Las Leivas didn't send her to the kindacologists 273 00:17:28.960 --> 00:17:31.879 they'd been working with. They handled it themselves. 274 00:17:34.680 --> 00:17:37.160 We promised ourselves that we were never going to leave 275 00:17:37.240 --> 00:17:39.560 anyone without access whatever we had to do. 276 00:17:44.760 --> 00:17:47.480 If a woman couldn't afford to buy miso, which was 277 00:17:47.560 --> 00:17:50.560 expensive in Mexico, Las Leaves would give her the pills 278 00:17:50.560 --> 00:17:54.840 for free. If a woman could afford me. So sometimes 279 00:17:54.880 --> 00:17:57.960 she had left over pills. Veto suggested what to do 280 00:17:58.080 --> 00:17:58.440 with them. 281 00:17:59.840 --> 00:18:00.800 Q two. 282 00:18:01.240 --> 00:18:03.560 I told them the next woman who comes, you are 283 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:05.639 going to give her the pills as a gift, and 284 00:18:05.840 --> 00:18:08.119 you are going to tell her about your experience. 285 00:18:09.119 --> 00:18:11.160 Veto would set up a meeting between the two women 286 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:13.920 in a park or at a mall. The woman who'd 287 00:18:13.920 --> 00:18:18.960 had an abortion would share her leftover pills and her story. Eventually, 288 00:18:19.240 --> 00:18:22.480 some women did this even when Vedo hadn't asked so. 289 00:18:22.600 --> 00:18:25.399 So for Multiply Candon multiplic Cando multiply Candle. 290 00:18:25.240 --> 00:18:28.040 That was multiplying and multiplying and multiplying. 291 00:18:28.960 --> 00:18:32.680 By connecting women directly one by one, Las Livides was 292 00:18:32.800 --> 00:18:36.280 recruiting volunteers and growing the network a person. 293 00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:40.479 There are people from those beginnings who are still at 294 00:18:40.600 --> 00:18:43.320 company or even started their own groups. 295 00:18:44.040 --> 00:18:48.120 Les Livides helped create accompaniment networks that today reached every 296 00:18:48.240 --> 00:18:55.640 state in Mexico. But over the years some activists criticized 297 00:18:55.720 --> 00:19:00.640 Veto's approach. For them, real change was changed ing the law. 298 00:19:01.600 --> 00:19:05.000 Veto remembers one conference where activists told her that what 299 00:19:05.160 --> 00:19:09.399 she was doing compromised their movement for abortion rights. They 300 00:19:09.400 --> 00:19:12.239 didn't want to be associated with people like her who 301 00:19:12.280 --> 00:19:13.160 were breaking the law. 302 00:19:15.840 --> 00:19:18.200 They said that what we were doing of accompanying the 303 00:19:18.280 --> 00:19:21.000 women and giving them the bills was risky for us, 304 00:19:24.520 --> 00:19:32.399 for us and for the whole movement Portos, because if 305 00:19:32.440 --> 00:19:34.800 they arrest you, it's like they are going to come 306 00:19:34.880 --> 00:19:35.560 for everyone. 307 00:19:36.680 --> 00:19:40.280 But Veto believed the system she'd help create was necessary 308 00:19:40.760 --> 00:19:44.359 and more humane than what the helplines across Latin America offered. 309 00:19:45.160 --> 00:19:47.680 And she actually didn't care if others were worried that 310 00:19:47.840 --> 00:19:50.320 her methods might damage legalization efforts. 311 00:19:51.119 --> 00:19:54.600 Mamselle, if we got. 312 00:19:54.520 --> 00:19:57.200 Down the legalization route, we'll never finish, or it will 313 00:19:57.240 --> 00:19:59.920 take a very long time, so we need concrete answers. 314 00:20:01.960 --> 00:20:05.679 Many activists in the network across Latin America found themselves 315 00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:11.080 on opposite sides. Some were fighting to legalize abortion. Those 316 00:20:11.160 --> 00:20:15.160 women were playing the long game, you might say. Others 317 00:20:15.240 --> 00:20:19.040 were actively breaking the law because women who needed abortions 318 00:20:19.080 --> 00:20:25.399 immediately couldn't wait until the law changed. But one group 319 00:20:25.520 --> 00:20:28.480 realized they didn't have to make a choice between the 320 00:20:28.520 --> 00:20:45.240 two sides. That's after the break A companiaminto with me 321 00:20:45.440 --> 00:20:49.359 So started in Mexico, but in Argentina women took it 322 00:20:49.640 --> 00:20:54.240 to the next level. Last fall, I went to a 323 00:20:54.320 --> 00:21:00.879 feminist gathering called an Inquentro was being held in a 324 00:21:00.920 --> 00:21:04.639 small Argentine city called San Salvador de Hujui near the 325 00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:11.119 Andes Mountains. The days of women whispering about me So 326 00:21:11.240 --> 00:21:14.880 in the hallways those are long gone. I've never seen 327 00:21:14.960 --> 00:21:20.280 so many women together here. Absolutely more than fifty thousand 328 00:21:20.359 --> 00:21:24.280 women flooded this town, and there was one woman you 329 00:21:24.680 --> 00:21:34.160 just couldn't miss. Her name is Ruth Surrichen. At the Encuentros, 330 00:21:34.240 --> 00:21:39.000 She's usually the person with the megaphone and seemingly endless energy. 331 00:21:42.600 --> 00:21:45.600 Ruth is one of the founders of the Argentinian Accompaniment 332 00:21:45.760 --> 00:21:50.560 network so Corista sendriv, which translates to first Responders Network. 333 00:21:52.080 --> 00:21:56.360 Even traveling doesn't keep her from doing accompaniamento. Ruth told 334 00:21:56.400 --> 00:21:59.280 me she was going to accompany three women in between 335 00:21:59.320 --> 00:22:04.280 her packs schedule at the Endquentron, and one of them 336 00:22:04.400 --> 00:22:07.280 is going to be using Miso proussel tonight at around 337 00:22:07.359 --> 00:22:14.119 eleven thirty pm, so I'll be there. Bruce took the 338 00:22:14.160 --> 00:22:18.560 accompaniamento model and scaled it. She started Socaristas and Dread 339 00:22:18.680 --> 00:22:22.720 in twenty twelve. It's now the biggest abortion accompaniment collective 340 00:22:22.920 --> 00:22:26.680 in the world. And to make that happen, she and 341 00:22:26.760 --> 00:22:31.000 the Socaristas decided to build systems, turning the art of 342 00:22:31.040 --> 00:22:36.760 accompaniamento into a science that started with a simple step, 343 00:22:37.520 --> 00:22:39.240 not exactly a revolutionary one. 344 00:22:39.400 --> 00:22:44.640 Yea Mohamunavia we said, let's make a form, yeah, amasumo, 345 00:22:44.760 --> 00:22:46.199 let's do a little follow up. 346 00:22:46.760 --> 00:22:51.440 The Socaristas survey was exhaustive, so that's amar. 347 00:22:52.119 --> 00:22:54.879 We were annoying, really annoying with the women. 348 00:22:55.680 --> 00:22:59.840 They asked straightforward questions like how many weeks pregnant were you? 349 00:23:00.400 --> 00:23:03.800 Did you have a successful abortions? You need to tell 350 00:23:03.920 --> 00:23:06.320 us because this is going to be useful for others. 351 00:23:06.600 --> 00:23:07.359 He important. 352 00:23:08.200 --> 00:23:11.480 Other questions were more personal, why did you decide to 353 00:23:11.520 --> 00:23:15.119 have an abortion? Does your partner know? Are you religious? 354 00:23:15.680 --> 00:23:18.119 And I think it's because we were conscious that we 355 00:23:18.240 --> 00:23:22.320 were also producing science prosamba. 356 00:23:23.880 --> 00:23:27.879 They tracked the data on spreadsheets, carefully documenting trends in 357 00:23:27.960 --> 00:23:33.119 women's experiences self managing with Miso and the Socaristas quickly 358 00:23:33.240 --> 00:23:35.879 noticed that a lot of women were finding them in 359 00:23:36.040 --> 00:23:37.359 pretty unexpected ways. 360 00:23:39.240 --> 00:23:43.160 Thirty percent had come to us recommended by healthcare professionals, 361 00:23:44.200 --> 00:23:48.480 and that's when we said, Greta, what's happening, queneson who 362 00:23:48.600 --> 00:23:49.000 are they? 363 00:23:51.840 --> 00:23:56.040 Ruth was surprised. In general, doctors in Argentina were not 364 00:23:56.240 --> 00:23:59.639 on board with abortion, especially when they weren't happening in 365 00:23:59.720 --> 00:24:04.639 hosts hospitals. So Socoristas wanted to understand why medical staff 366 00:24:04.720 --> 00:24:07.919 were referring patients to them a group that was working 367 00:24:08.200 --> 00:24:14.160 outside the medical system and the law, so they used 368 00:24:14.400 --> 00:24:18.720 gorilla tactics to build relationships with them. They started scheduling 369 00:24:18.760 --> 00:24:22.320 appointments with these doctors as if they were personal appointments, 370 00:24:22.920 --> 00:24:24.840 so that they could talk to them in private. 371 00:24:25.960 --> 00:24:31.879 Marnavin and we started creating a bond with professional medical staff, 372 00:24:32.720 --> 00:24:36.080 and then we started asking them, what's the problem if 373 00:24:36.119 --> 00:24:40.120 you write two prescriptions a month for us and nothing right? 374 00:24:41.200 --> 00:24:43.760 And they write us two or three prescriptions for us 375 00:24:43.880 --> 00:24:47.800 with different dates, and we'd get male names from friends 376 00:24:48.359 --> 00:24:53.440 or sons la retas and the prescriptions would be under 377 00:24:53.600 --> 00:24:54.359 male names. 378 00:25:00.160 --> 00:25:03.440 Not something socoristas do anymore. And when they did it, 379 00:25:03.840 --> 00:25:08.360 it was illegal. Many feminists weren't comfortable with Ruth's work. 380 00:25:09.040 --> 00:25:12.000 She was a little bit too radical for me. This 381 00:25:12.200 --> 00:25:16.320 is Mariana Romero again, she's the reproductive health researcher you 382 00:25:16.440 --> 00:25:19.480 heard earlier who thought to legalize abortion in Argentina. 383 00:25:20.280 --> 00:25:26.400 Radical how well, because they were open about having abortions 384 00:25:26.440 --> 00:25:30.680 at home and being with women having their abortions at home. 385 00:25:32.200 --> 00:25:36.960 I was like, what, just like with les levities in Mexico, 386 00:25:37.280 --> 00:25:41.480 Feminists in Argentina worried that Socoristas would damage their country's 387 00:25:41.560 --> 00:25:44.879 movement for abortion rights because it would be associated with 388 00:25:45.040 --> 00:25:50.200 criminal activity, but some of the doctors and nurses Agorista's 389 00:25:50.320 --> 00:25:54.359 scheduled appointments with were happy to help, even though they 390 00:25:54.480 --> 00:25:58.360 risked losing their license. I talked to a couple of them, 391 00:25:58.880 --> 00:26:03.120 and obgin named Gabrila Lucetti said sending patients who needed 392 00:26:03.160 --> 00:26:07.880 an abortion to the Sokoristas wasn't a hard choice, said demos. 393 00:26:07.960 --> 00:26:13.320 Do you know what we felt, Olivia, Relief, Ivase. 394 00:26:13.400 --> 00:26:15.800 Someone was going to do what we didn't dare to 395 00:26:16.440 --> 00:26:18.480 because we had a license and we were afraid of 396 00:26:18.520 --> 00:26:18.840 the law. 397 00:26:19.920 --> 00:26:20.400 Alais. 398 00:26:21.359 --> 00:26:25.320 A general practitioner named Naria Scharbowski told me she gladly 399 00:26:25.400 --> 00:26:28.840 signed the prescription every once in a while confience. 400 00:26:30.240 --> 00:26:33.040 I trusted them and I believed in the practice, but 401 00:26:33.240 --> 00:26:36.040