Editor’s note: National Campaign for Free, Safe and Accessible Abortion in Puerto Rico (Aborto Libre) letter addressed to our audience.
The National Campaign for Free, Safe, and Accessible Abortion in Puerto Rico (Aborto Libre) is a coalition founded in 2018 and devoted to the development of educational and advocacy strategies to advance sexual and reproductive rights and health.
Our members include organizations and individuals who provide sexual and reproductive health services, as well as others who develop community educational campaigns and advocate for abortion rights and safe, accessible abortion services.
Thanks to a grant from Fundación de Mujeres en Puerto Rico, we are implementing several projects to advance our goals. Among these are our Conversabortos, community gatherings where we can talk freely about abortion and implement educational initiatives about bodily autonomy and decision-making concerning our bodies.
Taking the Conversabortos to the communities has been an exceptionally gratifying experience. Under the motto “We talk about abortion here,” we have a very open facilitation format with guiding questions that generate participant conversations. The group dynamics allow participants to talk about the subject without judgment. Frequently, these people have never been able to talk about it with others.
“Maybe, if back then I had the information I got here today, I would have made different decisions.”
This experience has been liberating in many ways for those who needed to put their experiences into words, hear about others’ processes to validate their own, and feel that they are not alone, even after years of having gone through the process; it’s also helped those of us who struggle to protect abortion rights through our activism.
The talks have been carried out with people from different towns in rural and urban areas, LGBTTQIA+ persons, student groups, and religious individuals (Catholics). Unique conversations usually occur in all these activities, but an ever-present factor is the real need to have these conversations in a space that is free of shame and prejudice.
“I was so sure about my decision that I got the abortion despite the stigma around it. We carry the weight of moralism whether we like it or not.”
With each Conversaborto we reaffirm our commitment to continue advocating for this right at all costs and recognize the highly negative impact its limitation or banning would have on the lives of pregnant people. These talks also allow us to fine-tune our educational and political strategies to bring to light the reality of pregnant people in different parts of the country, each with different social, economic, and emotional needs.
We visualize ourselves in a continuous effort to build community. The educational axis is a priority in our collective; we understand that it is one of the most powerful tools for transforming lives and promoting change. Education allows us to counter the misinformation presented by anti-rights groups by disseminating truthful information about the legal and medical status of abortion in our country.
Education is a preventive tool for reducing unwanted pregnancies and, most importantly, it is a vehicle for eliminating the social stigma that exists around abortion, which greatly impacts people who need to make decisions about unwanted pregnancies.
– The National Campaign for Free, Safe and Accesible Abortion Coalition (Aborto Libre).
To learn more about Aborto Libre and support them, you can find them on their Instagram and Facebook pages.
