The pañuelo verde, joy and solidarity in pro-abortion organising

By Ellioté Long, Abortion Rights Executive Committee member

‘From Belfast to Buenos Aires…’ pañuelo verde hand embroidered by Ellioté Long (2019)

You have probably seen the pañuelo verde recently on pro-choice marches. This triangle of green fabric started out as the symbol of the National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Free and Safe Abortion in Argentina. It has now been adopted by abortion activists around the world. 

To mark International Safe Abortion Day (which also originated in Latin America), I spoke with abortion rights activists from Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and beyond about the history and meanings of the pañuelo verde.

Origins of the pañuelo verde

The pañuelo verde was born in Argentina: in 2003, pro-choice activists wore them at the XVIII National Women’s Meeting in Rosario and created a new symbol of feminist organising. Julia Inés Roitman, a lawyer and abortion rights activist based in Buenos Aires, explains: “The green pañuelo… has deep historical roots, tracing back to the white handkerchief worn by the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. These incredible, courageous women organized themselves during the civic-military dictatorship to confront state terrorism and demand information about their disappeared children and grandchildren.” 

This link to the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo situated the campaign within a broader movement for human rights. Mónica Menini, from Católicas por el derecho a decidir Argentina, further explained that the colour green was chosen because it ‘represents hope and health’. From the start, the pañuelo verde was a stigma-busting statement that celebrated the liberatory and life-saving potential of free and legal abortion. This destigmatising power only grew as the marea verde (green wave) spread around Argentina, Latin America and beyond. 

Strength in numbers

The design of the pañuelo verde is simple, inexpensive and infinitely adaptable. Besides its simple design, the pañuelo spread because it was linked to the idea of safe and free abortion, rather than any organisation or individual. Julia Inés Rotiman described the pañuelo verde as a distillation of the Argentinian movement’s “horizontal structure, its intergenerational origins and growth, and, perhaps most significantly, its [rejection of] personality cults.” It was the perfect symbol for a truly grassroots campaign. As the Argentinian campaign ramped up in 2018, pro-abortion organisers would show up to demonstrations and meetings with plenty of spare pañuelos to share. Soon, they became ubiquitous and people from all walks of life wore them on their wrists or tied to their bags. 

Many of the activists I spoke with described the comfort of seeing these flashes of green everywhere — on the bus, at university, at work and in the street. The pañuelo verde introduced pro-abortion politics into the everyday, made the pro-abortion majority visible and helped people overcome the stigma around being openly pro-abortion. In the words of Noelia, a safe abortion activist from Buenos Aires and a counsellor at Safe2Choose, “whenever you saw a person wearing it in the streets, a complete stranger, we had a feeling of being partners in crime and [this feeling] grew bigger and bigger until the marea verde was unstoppable.” 

Belonging and solidarity

This sense of belonging and pride was transformative for many pro-abortion activists and the movement as a whole. Pañuelazos, protests where people come together, dance and chant with their pañuelos verdes, were an invigorating experience that bonded activists together. As one activist from Argentina explained, the pañuelo verde linked abortion with “more positive feelings like joy, bodily autonomy, feminist celebrations, gathering together and glitter – this disrupted gloomy and stigmatising attitudes towards abortion”. This was vital for bolstering activists and transforming public sentiment about abortion in Argentina.

The feeling of togetherness defied borders as activists across Latin America and around the world adopted the pañuelo verde. They can now be seen at pro-abortion marches up and down the Americas and, indeed, many of us wore them earlier this month at Abortion Rights’ Stand Up For Choice demonstration in London. 

Kelly Guadalupe Ramirez Alpuche, director of Igualdad Sustantiva in Mexico, and Angela María Portilla León, from the Colectiva feminista Cristina Bautista in Colombia, both described the unifying power of the pañuelo verde. For them, it symbolises a common struggle, even though Latin American activists are organising in different contexts and facing different challenges.  

As the pañuelo verde spreads around the world, it is vital to celebrate its origins and recognise those who created it. The Argentinian activists who created this symbol taught us all to honour our feminist forebears, be proud of our pro-abortion beliefs and embrace international solidarity. The pañuelo verde is a lasting testament to the joy and inventiveness of the global pro-abortion movement and I will be wearing mine with pride this International Safe Abortion Day.