Latin America: How a Network of Women in Latin America Transformed Safe, Self-Managed Abortions

Jun 8, 2025 | Marta Martínez and Liana Simstrom
WUSF
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In November 1990, more than 3,000 women descended on the sleepy beach town of San Bernardo del Tuyú, Argentina, for what was becoming a legendary event.

Activists, doctors, academics, social workers and lawyers from across the Americas traveled all the way to attend a feminist gathering known as an Encuentro.

While they publicly debated their political demands, the piece of information that made the biggest impact on the future of abortion was exchanged in private, in whispers.

Alicia Cacopardo, an OB-GYN from Buenos Aires, was part of those whispers. In between sessions, she fell into conversation with a group of Brazilian women in the hallway, who talked about a pill she had never heard of before: Cytotec, the commercial name of misoprostol. The drug was designed to treat stomach ulcers, but women in Brazil were using it for safe, at-home abortions.