The green wave

1. 1

   38 to 29: on December 30, 2020, the Senate passed Law 27,610, which legalized elective abortion up to the 14th week.

2. 2

   In 2018, the Chamber of Deputies approved the same right by 129 to 125, but the Senate rejected it by 38 to 31.

3. 3

   About 500 organizations made up the Campaign, which filed its bill eight times between 2007 and 2019 and made the green scarf its symbol.

4. 4

   Simultaneous pañuelazos, vigils outside Congress and an alliance of women legislators from every bloc carried the issue from the street to the floor.

5. 5

   From December 2023 to September 2025, the latest data available, the Milei government delivered no abortion medication; activists turned to defending the law with data and a class action.

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If you're new to this, start with the fundamentals, from the vote goal to what the research says. Read the fundamentals

In 2015, a march against femicide brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets. In 2018, the green scarf of a campaign founded in 2005 became a generation's symbol, and legal abortion reached the floor of Congress for the first time. It lost in the Senate, came back in an election year and became law in 2020.

38 to 29

Senate votes, with 1 abstention, that passed Law 27,610 on Dec 30, 2020official Source

129 to 125

Chamber of Deputies vote on Jun 14, 2018; the Senate rejected the bill 38 to 31 in Augustofficial Source

200,000+

green scarves handed out by the Campaign in 2018, against about 8,000 a year beforecampaign figure Source

218,429

template messages to legislators replicated through Activá el Congreso in 2018study Source

From scarf to law

1. 2003At the National Women's Meeting in Rosario, abortion is a central demand for the first time, and green scarves appear in the closing march.
2. May 28, 2005The National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe and Free Abortion is launched, with the green scarf as its symbol. In 2007 it files its first bill, with no sponsor, and keeps refiling it until 2019.
3. Jun 3, 2015Ni Una Menos. After the femicide of 14-year-old Chiara Páez and a tweet by Marcela Ojeda on May 11, between 200,000 and 300,000 people gather outside Congress, with actions in about 80 cities.
4. Feb 19, 2018A tweetstorm under #AbortoLegalYa brings thousands to a pañuelazo outside Congress, and the Campaign runs out of scarves. On March 1, Macri allows the debate in Congress.
5. Mar–May 2018The bill is filed for the seventh time, with 71 signatures from several blocs. Between April 10 and May 31, 738 people testify at the hearings; students fill the "green Tuesdays".
6. Jun 14, 2018After almost 24 hours of debate and a vigil in the street, the Chamber of Deputies passes the bill 129 to 125, with 1 abstention. Votes from La Pampa and Santiago del Estero switch during the session.
7. Aug 8–9, 2018The day before, Amnesty runs a green coat hanger in the New York Times with the message "El mundo te está mirando" (the world is watching you). The Senate rejects the bill: 38 against, 31 in favor, 2 abstentions.
8. May 28, 2019Presidential election year: the bill's eighth filing, with pañuelazos in more than 100 cities at home and abroad. Alberto Fernández, elected in October, promises to send a bill.
9. Nov 17–Dec 11, 2020Delayed by the pandemic, the executive sends the bill together with the Thousand Days Plan for care in pregnancy and early childhood. The Chamber passes it 131 to 117, with 6 abstentions.
10. Dec 30, 2020Before dawn, after a session of about 12 hours followed by thousands of demonstrators, the Senate passes Law 27,610 by 38 to 29. The law comes into force on January 24, 2021.

Three layers

The green wave had no owner. Three layers reinforced each other, each with its own logic.

• The CampaignA nationwide alliance of about 500 organizations: parties, unions, academic groups, social organizations, professional associations and networks of women communicators. A national plenary decides, and a coordinating group with a one-year mandate carries it out.
• The alliance in CongressWomen deputies and senators from every bloc, the "sororas", with ties built during the 2017 gender parity law. They signed together, counted votes and, in 2020, coordinated both chambers.
• The waveNi Una Menos, the schoolgirls, journalists, actresses, doctors and organizations such as Amnesty: people who did not answer to the Campaign but wore the same scarf and made the same demand.

What was specific to Argentina from 2015 to 2020 and may be missing elsewhere.

Platforms

The green scarf

The campaign's cheapest medium: a cloth scarf with the slogan printed on it, worn round the neck or tied to a backpack. Before 2018, the Campaign handed out about 8,000 a year; in 2018, more than 200,000.

Twitter

Where #NiUnaMenos was born and where #AbortoLegalYa trended during the tweetstorm of February 19, 2018. Among the accounts that drove the hashtag most, journalists were the largest group, followed by elected politicians, activists and public figures.

Facebook and short videos

The Ni Una Menos page, created three months earlier, had more than 130,000 followers in the days before the first march. The Women's Equality Center turned testimony from health workers into short videos for social media.

TV and celebrities

Actresses, presenters and comedians took the issue onto high-audience shows such as Intrusos; the Actrices Argentinas collective grew out of that debate, and artists began to take part in Campaign actions.

Livestreamed hearings

The 2018 hearings in the Chamber of Deputies were streamed online, with audiences of up to 70,000, and citizen initiatives rebroadcast the debates.

Activá el Congreso

A citizen pressure initiative aimed at deputies and senators who were opposed or undecided, with template messages and a vote counter; the messages were replicated 218,429 times in 2018.

WhatsApp and Zoom

In 2020, the executive coordinated the vote with legislators through WhatsApp groups and Zoom meetings, in the middle of the pandemic.

Local conditions

• A nationwide tradition of gatherings: since 1986, the National Women's Meetings had raised the demand, and the 2003 meeting in Rosario put abortion at the center.
• The human rights legacy: the white headscarves of the Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo gave the green scarf a language every Argentine recognizes.
• Abortion allowed only in a few cases and, in practice, clandestine: in 2018, the health minister himself estimated 254,000 abortions a year.
• A 72-seat Senate, three seats per province plus three for the city of Buenos Aires, where the more conservative provinces carry a lot of weight; in 2018 governors pressed their legislators, and in 2020 several who had pushed against the bill freed their votes.
• Organized opposition from Catholic and evangelical groups, who spoke in the name of life.
• A president who allowed the debate in 2018 (Macri) and a successor who promised and sent the bill (Alberto Fernández, 2019–2023).
• A generation of teenage girls politicized by Ni Una Menos, who took the scarf to their backpacks and schools and filled the square on green Tuesdays.

The green wave combined a symbol anyone can repeat, street pressure on fixed dates across the country and the patient work of counting votes with women legislators from every party, on top of 15 years of organizing.

Three fronts

A symbol everyone repeats

One color, one cheap object and a three-part slogan. The scarf needed no explanation, fit in any backpack and turned whoever wore it into a walking poster.

The street on fixed dates

Simultaneous pañuelazos in dozens of cities, green Tuesdays during the hearings and vigils outside Congress on voting days. The call went out on social media, and the organizing happened in each city.

Votes counted one by one

A bill written in forums and signed by deputies from several blocs, 738 testimonies at the 2018 hearings and women legislators who counted votes province by province and, in 2020, agreed the text with the Senate before the floor vote.

The Campaign cycle

The same cycle ran from 2007 to 2020, with each new filing of the bill; from 2018, with the wave in the streets, it sped up.

1. Build consensus Forums in several cities discuss the text, and the national plenary approves it. In March 2016, the Paraná plenary approved the version taken to Congress in 2018.
2. Always refile When the bill lapses, it goes back to Congress, ideally on May 28, with signatures from deputies in several blocs and a pañuelazo at the door.
3. Call online, organize offline A tweetstorm, a hashtag and videos by artists to call people out; local organizations to bring them to the square, the schools and the towns of the interior.
4. Bring evidence and stories Doctors, nurses, lawyers and women with lived experience at the hearings and in the media. In the Women's Equality Center study, local doctors were the most convincing messengers.
5. Count and work the votes Know, legislator by legislator, who is Yes, No or undecided, what pressure they face in their province and who can talk to them.
6. Fill the square on the day A vigil outside Congress for the whole session and mirror events in the provinces, so every vote is cast in front of a crowd.
7. Come back after defeat Refile the bill, turn the issue into an election question and press candidates for a public position.
8. Defend implementation After the law, explain how to get access, watch the supply of medication and report barriers.

And again.

This playbook draws on what the organizers themselves wrote and said: documents and interviews from Campaign members, the account of the Ni Una Menos founders, testimony from legislators in the cross-party alliance and a strategy podcast with the people who tested the messages. Press and research confirm facts and figures.

• National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe and Free Abortion (Campaña Nacional)

  Nationwide alliance of organizations and individuals, launched on May 28, 2005

  Made the green scarf its symbol, filed its bill eight times between 2007 and 2019 and organized pañuelazos and vigils across the country.

  Sources

• María Alicia Gutiérrez

  Sociologist and University of Buenos Aires lecturer; Campaign member from the start

  Explained how the Campaign is organized and how the bill was reworked for a year in forums across the country and debated article by article at the Paraná plenary in 2016.

  Sources

• María Teresa Bosio and Marta Alanis

  Catholics for the Right to Decide (CDD) Argentina, a member organization of the Campaign

  Bosio, president of CDD, wrote about the Campaign's tactics and the daughters' revolution; Alanis spoke for the Campaign at the bill's eighth filing, in 2019, calling senators to account.

  Sources

• Marcela Ojeda and the Ni Una Menos journalists

  Journalists, writers and communicators who called the march of June 3, 2015

  A tweet by Ojeda became a march in 23 days; about twenty communicators organized the logistics, shared out the territorial and political work and, in the middle of an election campaign, asked candidates to sign five commitments.

  Sources

• Silvia Lospennato, Mónica Macha, Brenda Austin and the "sororas"

  Women deputies and senators from several blocs (PRO, UCR, Peronism, the left)

  Formed the cross-party alliance that counted votes, passed the bill in the Chamber in 2018 and, with senators such as Anabel Fernández Sagasti and Gladys González, turned it into law in 2020.

  Sources

• Silvia Augsburger

  Campaign activist and member of its drafting committee; the first national deputy to bring the initiative to Congress

  Described how the Campaign gathered signatures in 2005, filed the bill with no sponsor in 2007 and with legislators' signatures in 2008; in 2025, she described how activists keep access going.

  Sources

• Mariela Belski, Paula Ávila Guillén and Luciana Peker

  Director of Amnesty International Argentina; director of the Women's Equality Center; journalist and author

  On Anat Shenker-Osorio's podcast Words to Win By, they explained how the Women's Equality Center tested messages and messengers in the provinces, Amnesty's New York Times ad and the "daughters' revolution".

  Sources

• Ingrid Beck and Gabriela Pepe

  Journalists at Letra P

  Covered the 2018 and 2020 votes up close and summed up what changed between defeat and victory: cross-bloc consensus, a public health frame, the executive's push and governors who freed their legislators' votes.

  Sources

What the organizers said about the decisions they made. Paraphrased unless otherwise noted; short quotes are in the original Spanish.

• "Es una organización horizontal, transversal, plural y diversa" (a horizontal, cross-cutting, plural and diverse organization). The national plenary decides, and a coordinating group with a one-year mandate carries it out.

  María Alicia Gutiérrez, National Campaign, El Salto, Pañuelos verdes: una historia de lucha feminista, Aug 1, 2018

• The messenger had to be local: a person's own doctor, telling a patient's story. "La decisión va a venir del estómago" (the decision will come from the gut).

  Paula Ávila Guillén, Women's Equality Center, Words to Win By, episode 6 (Legalizing Abortion in Argentina), Spanish transcript, 2023

• Talking about "feminism" could make persuadable voters put up a wall; persuasion often means saying something new, without debating on the opposition's ground.

  Anat Shenker-Osorio, messaging strategist (Words to Win By), Words to Win By, episode 6, 2023

• The scarves come from the Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo; later, Mexico and Chile took up the symbol.

  Mariela Belski, Amnesty International Argentina, Words to Win By, episode 6, 2023

Pick the moves that fit your context and add them to your kit.

1. A symbol anyone can wear

   One color, one cheap object and a printed slogan anyone can wear without asking permission. In Argentina, the Campaign went from about 8,000 scarves a year to more than 200,000 in 2018, and the symbol spread to Chile, Mexico and Colombia.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   Works when the cause needs daily visibility and a sign of belonging that doesn't depend on any one organization.

   Don't use when

   Doesn't work if the color or object already belongs to a party, or if wearing the symbol puts people in danger without protection.

   1. Week −40 Choose a color and an object no party or movement uses
   2. Week −38 Print a short slogan on it that starts with prevention
   3. Week −30 Produce in bulk, at cost, with one pickup point per city
   4. Week −20 Hand it out at every action and ask people to wear it daily
   5. Week −12 Invite artists, journalists and health workers to wear it in public
   6. D-day week Wear it together on voting day, in the square and the provinces

   Team

   • Production: orders, stock and pricing at cost
   • Local distribution: one pickup point per city
   • Press: gets the symbol onto people with a platform

   What to measure: Symbols handed over in person per city, to people who signed up for the next action.

   Risks to watch: People wearing the symbol can face hostility, and in Argentina some schools banned the scarf: tell people to move in groups, keep a contact for reporting incidents and never pressure minors to expose themselves.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

2. Nationwide pañuelazo at a set time

   A simultaneous, short, easy-to-copy action, raising the scarf at the same time, called on social media and organized by local groups. In Argentina, the 2018 19F brought thousands to Congress and, in 2019, there were pañuelazos in more than 100 cities.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   Works when there is already a local network in many cities and a date on the calendar: a bill filing, a vote or a symbolic day.

   Don't use when

   Doesn't work as a substitute for organizing: without local groups, you get a hashtag with nobody in the square.

   1. Week −8 Set the date and time of the action, the same nationwide
   2. Week −6 Open a map where each city logs a meeting point and an organizer
   3. Week −5 Send local organizers a kit: slogan, poster, safety rules
   4. Week −1 Call people out with a tweetstorm and artists' videos that week
   5. D-day week Hold the pañuelazo and post photos from every city
   6. 1 week(s) after Thank everyone who came and invite them to the next action

   Team

   • Coordination: keeps the map and talks to the cities
   • Local organizer: meeting point, safety and photos
   • Communications: tweetstorm, videos and the city gallery

   What to measure: Cities that held the action with an organizer logged on the map, and the attendance they counted.

   Risks to watch: Simultaneous actions with no local organizer can end in clashes or no-shows: only put cities on the map that have a contact person and clear safety rules.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

3. Cross-party alliance, vote by vote

   Legislators from every bloc co-sign the bill, count votes by name and talk to the other chamber before the floor vote. In Argentina, 71 deputies from several blocs signed in 2018; the alliance won the Chamber 129 to 125 and, in 2020, passed the law.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   Works when the issue cuts across parties and there is at least one trusted person in each bloc.

   Don't use when

   Doesn't work if the cause becomes one party's flag, or if nobody listens to the chamber that holds the veto before the vote.

   1. Week −26 Meet legislators from every bloc months before filing
   2. Week −14 File the bill with co-sponsors from several parties
   3. Week −12 Open the vote-count spreadsheet, legislator by legislator
   4. Week −10 Bring doctors and experts to the hearings and undecided offices
   5. Week −6 Talk to the other chamber about the text before the floor vote
   6. Week −1 Update the count every day in the week of the vote
   7. 1 week(s) after Publicly thank those who voted yes, from every party

   Team

   • Legislators in each bloc: count and work their colleagues
   • Civil society advocacy: brings evidence and messengers
   • Vote count: keeps the spreadsheet and updates it daily

   What to measure: Legislators who moved from undecided to Yes after a meeting logged in the spreadsheet.

   Risks to watch: Negotiating the text has a cost: the 2020 law included conscientious objection and lost the word "integral" to a veto. Decide in advance what is non-negotiable and explain the concessions to your base.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

4. Vigil on voting day

   Fill the square outside parliament for the whole session, with mirror events in the provinces, so every vote is cast in front of a crowd. In Argentina, the June 2018 vigil lasted through almost 24 hours of debate, and thousands followed the December 2020 vote in the street.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   Works when the vote has a set date and the result is open by a handful of votes.

   Don't use when

   Doesn't work without safety and care teams; near a counter-protest, without clear separation, it becomes a risk.

   1. Week −4 Apply for street and sound permits
   2. Week −3 Set up stage, sound and care, health and safety teams
   3. Week −2 Agree separate areas from the counter-protest with the authorities
   4. Week −1 Call mirror events in the provincial capitals
   5. D-day week Hold the vigil, with hourly updates on the count
   6. D-day week Close with a next step, win or lose

   Team

   • Logistics: stage, screens, sound and toilets
   • Care: health, safety and meeting points for minors
   • Updates: translate the count for the crowd

   What to measure: People who signed up as care volunteers and completed their shift at the vigil.

   Risks to watch: A crowd at night, with teenagers and a counter-protest nearby: separate areas, an identifiable care team and an exit plan agreed with the authorities.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

5. From defeat to an election pledge

   After losing a vote, refile the demand and turn it into an election question, asking candidates for a public position. In Argentina, the Campaign went back to Congress in May 2019, a presidential election year, and the president-elect sent the bill in November 2020.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   Works when an election is near and the issue already has a majority in the street but not in parliament.

   Don't use when

   Doesn't work if the pledge stops at the photo op: without a signature, a deadline and follow-up, nobody holds anyone to it.

   1. Week −40 Review the defeat in public and set the next filing date
   2. Week −22 Refile the bill on the symbolic date, with pañuelazos
   3. Week −12 Send every candidate a short pledge to sign
   4. Week −6 Publish who signed and who didn't
   5. Week −3 Ask the same question in debates and interviews
   6. 4 week(s) after After the election, press for a date to send the bill

   Team

   • Pledges: drafts the text and collects signatures
   • Press: publishes the list and preps the debate question
   • Follow-up: chases deadlines after the election

   What to measure: Candidates who signed the pledge in writing, and how many kept it once elected.

   Risks to watch: One party can capture the cause and make it a target for the other: ask everyone for a pledge and thank whoever keeps it, from any side.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

What the green wave built, laid out for you to copy. It works for changing a law, winning a right or keeping a cause alive for years until the political window opens.

What works anywhere and what depended on Argentina from 2015 to 2020.

Choose your country

The green wave's sequence, from the years of preparation to defending the law, as a checklist. Your progress is saved in this browser.

Five questions, each explained after you answer.

The rules below protect the campaign's credibility and the people who put themselves forward in it.

Identified people only

Messages to legislators only from citizens using their own names. No fake profiles, bots or mass sends in the name of people who did not agree.

Protect people who testify

Informed consent, the option of anonymity, preparation and follow-up. In April 2018, a La Plata prosecutor filed a complaint for "apology for crime" against nurse Vilma Ripoll, who told the press outside Congress that she had performed about 500 abortions.

Take care with minors

Teenagers were at the heart of it: don't expose them without permission, have meeting points and responsible adults at actions and don't publish faces without consent.

Street safety

Actions with thousands of teenagers and counter-protests nearby call for groups, a contact for reporting incidents and separate areas. Some Argentine schools went as far as banning the scarf.

Health data is sensitive

Never record who has had an abortion. In Argentina, Data Protection Law 25,326 applies; in Brazil, the LGPD; in the European Union, the GDPR.

Health information from official sources

Point people to access through official services. Where abortion is a crime, giving directions can have legal consequences: talk to lawyers first.

Labeled advertising

Paid ads, such as Amnesty's in the New York Times, must say who paid. Follow your country's election law and political advertising rules.

Respect for opponents

No harassment, threats or exposure of the personal data of opposing legislators or activists. Pressure is public and argued.

It isn't fast

From the first bill in 2007 to the law in 2020 took thirteen years and eight filings, on top of decades of National Women's Meetings.

The street doesn't replace votes

Even with the wave in the streets, the Senate rejected the bill in 2018. The law came when the president changed and so did the governors, who freed their legislators' votes in 2020.

Winning the law doesn't guarantee access

Under Milei, the national government delivered no abortion medication from December 2023 to September 2025, the latest data available. Official records counted 107,505 terminations in 2023 and 79,186 in 2024, with incomplete 2024 data (Buenos Aires and San Juan had not reported to the national government), and Amnesty logged three times as many complaints about barriers in 2025.

The law can be challenged

In February 2024, La Libertad Avanza deputies filed a bill to repeal Law 27,610 and raise penalties; in March, Milei called abortion "asesinato agravado por el vínculo" (aggravated murder of a relative). The government said it did not back the bill, which had not been debated by December 2025.

Concessions have a cost

The law included individual conscientious objection, with limits. On signing it, the president vetoed the word "integral" next to health, arguing that health needs no qualifier.

Horizontality breeds infighting

With no single leadership, the network withstands blows, but sharing out representation breeds confusion and internal disputes, as journalist Luciana Peker warns.

Gender doesn't guarantee the vote

About half of the women deputies voted against in 2018, according to Dora Barrancos and Mónica Macha. The alliance was built vote by vote.

This playbook was built from documents, interviews and writing by members of the Campaign and Ni Una Menos, testimony from legislators, a strategy podcast with the people who tested the messages, official records, academic research on social media and reporting from 2015 to 2026. All pages were accessed on October 27, 2026.

Updated 27 October 2026