“Being an acompañante gave me feminism, life, joy, emotions”: The lived experience of abortion activists from four collectives in Latin America

Feminist abortion accompaniment networks have played a vital role in advancing reproductive rights in Latin America over the last several decades. These collectives engage in political activism through direct action and provide people with support during safe self-managed abortions. While research has explored the accompaniment model of care and experiences of abortion seekers who have been accompanied, a better understanding of acompañantes’ motivations and perspectives on their activism is needed to build a sustainable accompaniment movement. Developed collaboratively with Ibis Reproductive Health and four feminist abortion accompaniment collectives, we conducted a novel creative reflection inquiry study in three countries to understand the experiences of acompañantes. The study involved posing five questions to 39 participating acompañantes focusing on their motivations, identities, experiences, and perceptions about the meanings of being an accompanier. Participants responded to each question creatively through the modality of their choosing with an accompanying written or audio recorded description of their art. After the arts exercises, a focus group discussion created space for sharing and collective reflection. Three prominent themes were constructed: the sense of community, identity, and power that accompaniment generates; healing through selfcare and collective care practices; and the challenges and joys of supporting self-managed abortions in contexts of stigma and criminalization. This study highlights accompaniment as a transformative feminist praxis and accompaniment groups as spaces that nurture self-discovery and healing and cultivate both personal and collective power among abortion activists.