More than three years after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, abortion has become more difficult and expensive to access in the U.S., increasingly putting pregnant people at risk of criminalization and medical debt. But across the Global South, feminist organizers have long navigated oppressive political conditions to build accompaniment networks, volunteer-led organizations that help people self-manage their abortions and much more.

Join the Debt Collective’s Healthcare Worker Solidarity Collective for a panel discussion with leaders of abortion accompaniment networks and feminist collectives from Ecuador, Argentina, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Together, we’ll explore the potential of the accompaniment network model to transform care into collective power through mutual aid, feminist organizing, and international solidarity.

Learn more about our guest speakers and their organizations:

Socorristas En Red (Argentina)

Socorristas en Red is a national abortion accompaniment network based in Argentina. Since 2012, Socorristas (“first responders”) have volunteered to disseminate medication for self-managed abortions and support individuals through the process of self-managing their own abortions.

Socorristas En Red have served a key function in the Green Wave abortion rights movement by building networks of feminist collectives across Argentina, inspiring countries across Latin America and the Caribbean to develop their own accompaniment networks.

Las Comadres (Ecuador)

Las Comadres is a national abortion accompaniment network based in Ecuador. Since 2014, Las Comadres has organized to provide information and support to women, trans men, and non-binary people seeking abortions in Ecuador. Along with Socorristas En Red, Las Comadres is also part of Red Compañera Feminista, a regional network of accompaniment networks that spans Latin America and the Caribbean.

MAMA Network (Sub-Saharan Africa)

Mama Network: Mobilizing Activists around Medical Abortion (MAMA) Network is a collaboration of grassroots activists and feminist groups based in Sub-Saharan Africa working to share evidence-based and stigma-free information about self-managed medical abortion with women on a community level.

MAMA Network’s model for abortion care includes bringing information to people and communities, putting medication abortion pills into peoples’ hands, and building the movement for self-managed abortion. MAMA aims to transform the landscape of reproductive care in Africa by introducing medical abortion as a safe, accessible, and effective method to end an unwanted pregnancy outside of the clinical setting.