美国国家公共电台 NPR For Abortion Activists In Argentina, A Campaign Waged Online Faces A Disconnect

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NOEL KING, HOST:

All right. In Argentina, the Senate has rejected a bill that would have legalized abortion². If it had passed, Argentina would have become one of a few countries in Latin America where abortion is legal. This came as a big blow for feminist³ groups who've been protesting on the streets of Argentina for months. Social media also played a big role in this campaign. NPR's Jasmine Garsd has the story.

JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE⁴: It's a sunny day, and a woman walks past a young man on the street. He mutters an obscene cat call.

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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Spanish).

GARSD: In the clip, the woman smiles and says, thank you. But then the camera pans to her fantasy, what she really wishes she could do.

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GARSD: The video goes on to show her, in her imagination, pulling out a knife and stabbing him. It's a comedy skit⁵, a dark one. Since it published on YouTube in 2014, it's gotten over 1.3 million views and catapulted Argentine comedian⁶ Malena Pichot to Internet fame. It's part of a wave of young Latin American feminists⁷ who have very skillfully used social media to get the message out and take down long-held sexist tradition.

MALENA PICHOT: (Speaking Spanish).

GARSD: "Every day, I have girls on the street approaching me," says Pichot, "telling me that they are feminists because they saw some skit of mine. I mean, clearly, outside of television, online, in life, something is undeniably happening with the feminist movement." The digital feminist movement first tackled harassment⁸, kind of Argentina's #MeToo moment, but it quickly pivoted⁹ to something more divisive - legalizing abortion.

An estimated 500,000 women abort¹ illegally in the country every year. The hashtag #legalabortionnow took over Argentine Twitter and Facebook. Over the last few months, women showed up in droves in downtown Buenos Aires and around the country wearing green handkerchiefs symbolizing¹⁰ the cause, demanding a change.

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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in Spanish).

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Speaking Spanish).

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in Spanish).

GARSD: Conservatives fought back. They had their own symbol - a light-blue handkerchief, the color of the Argentine flag. They, too, went on social media with the anti-abortion hashtag #savebothlives. And then the holiest of all Argentines, Pope Francis himself, weighed in with an Instagram post in which he's holding a baby, captioned¹¹ - the divine gift of life must be promoted, guarded and protected from conception to its natural end.

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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Spanish).

GARSD: And that's the final vote, announced in the Argentine Senate on Thursday morning. Abortion remains¹² illegal. I have never felt prouder of my country, tweeted one woman, an opponent of abortion. Another activist¹³ tweeted bitterly, go home and rest, senators. Tomorrow, you can send your lovers to abort at a private clinic. That was retweeted several thousand times, but as the Argentine feminist movement found out yesterday, online support doesn't always translate into political victory.

Jasmine Garsd, NPR News, New York.