News grew in favor of the right to abortion in the Argentine press

Media coverage in favor of the right to abortion grew between 2018 and 2021, from 40% news to 54%in line with the social decriminalization of the voluntary interruption of pregnancy, which became law in 2020, as revealed by an investigation presented this Wednesday, which monitored almost 10,000 publications from 31 media outlets across the country for three years.

A high proportion of news focused on social mobilizations and it was growing in coverage in favor of the legislation of the voluntary (IVE) and legal (ILE) interruption of pregnancy.

Project Look

This was revealed by the investigation “Abortion in the Argentine press”, by the Mirar project team, from the Center for State and Society Studies (Cedes), in alliance with the international organization Ibis Reproductive Health.

The Mirar project aims to monitor the implementation of the abortion law in Argentina.

In this context, the initiative determined the journalistic treatment and the evolution of the media coverage of abortion, in 2018 and 2020, when the parliamentary debates that concluded with the approval of the IVE/ILE law 27,610 took place, and in 2021, the first year of implementation of the standard.

The investigation

For the investigation, 31 national written media and from all provinces were monitored, with a total of 9,957 articles in the three years: 4,667 from 2018, 3,906 from 2020 and 1,384 from 2021.

2018 – the first parliamentary debate that ended with the non-approval of the law – was the year that registered the most articles “because it was an extraordinary event, which was noted in the number of notes, number of covers on the subject and sustained coverage in the media,” said Mercedes Krauss, one of the authors of the report.

The sample

The federal media monitored for the investigation were El Ancasti from Catamarca, El Independiente from La Rioja, El Tribuno from Jujuy, El Tribuno from Salta, La Gaceta from Tucumán and Panorama from Santiago del Estero.

Also the Diario Chaco, El Litoral de Corrientes, La Mañana de Formosa, MisionesOnline, the Diario de Cuyo de San Juan, the Diario de la República de San Luis and Los Andes de Mendoza.

In addition, El Diario de Entre Ríos, El Litoral de Santa Fe, El Día de La Plata, La Arena de La Pampa, La Voz de Córdoba, Diario Prensa de Tierra del Fuego, Diario Río Negro, El Chubut, La Mañana de Neuquén and Weather South of Santa Cruz.

While the national media analyzed were Agencia Télam, Clarín, El Destape Web, Infobae, La Nación, La Prensa, Página/12 and Perfil.

Results

The volume of articles produced by the national media reached 42% of the articles on the subject, while in the regions the production varied between 15% (NOA) and 11% (NEA, Cuyo and Patagonia).

“This volume of articles shows the power that the national media have to shape the political agenda and public opinion, accompanying both the debate and the implementation of Law 27,610 and playing an important role in disseminating it and its guidelines. among the non-specialized public,” the authors said.

Another piece of information provided by the research was that the percentage of favorable articles grew between 2018 and 2021, from 40% to 54%.

This trend deepened even more in some media such as La Gaceta de Tucumán (from 19% to 53%), Diario de Chaco (from 38% to 61%), El Diario de la República de San Luis (from 39% to 79 %), and El Chubut (from 29% to 74%).

The increase in the proportion of publications explicitly in favor was even more notable in the coverage of the newspaper Río Negro (from 55% to 92%) and La Arena de La Pampa (from 63% to 93%), where they exceeded 90%, and even more so in La Mañana de Formosa, which went from 35% to 100% of the notes in favor of the right.

The opposite process was observed in the newspaper La Prensa, with 60% of its articles against the law in 2018 and 91% against it in 2021.

About the notes

The notes in favor of the IVE/ILE law, with signature, are written by female journalistsnot so those signed by men, which reveal a rather conservative trend.

By 2021, with the law in force, 84% of the articles in favor of the law were written by women.

In relation to the photos of the articles on abortion, the demonstrations in the streets were the most used images in the three years, both in articles for and against the right, according to the document.

On terminology used in the notes, the investigation showed that interruption of pregnancy was imposed as of 2021, after the enactment of the law, for which it was concluded that there was a social and media appropriation of the official terms used by law 27,610 of IVE / ILE.

“Continuing to report on the guidelines of Law 27,610 and on abortion in general from a rights and inclusive perspective is essential to expand access and position abortion as a legitimate and safe option,” said Krause.

And he considered that “there is a challenge to build a new agenda to communicate the guidelines of the IVE/ILE law, counteracting stigmatization, and to monitor the application of the law, of respectful public policies, and to strengthen the right achieved.”