In Argentina, 450,000 clandestine abortions are carried out every year, being the number one cause of maternal death in our country. Most of them, either due to their lack of economic resources or sexual education, abort using the most easily accessed tools for them: abortive plants.

Owing to conservative politics, abortion decriminalization was rejected once again back in 2018, meaning that more women were going to engage on their own in practices that should be a public health matter, that are shameful and dangerous to the point that sometimes indirectly sentenced them to die. Amnesty International is a nonprofit organization that fights for human rights and this time, on such an important date, International Safe Abortion Day, we wanted to remind politicians of their negligence by bringing to the surface the need for their urgent action and reconsideration of their old-fashioned points of view.

On September 23rd, International Safe Abortion Day, following the tradition of using flowers as a symbol of respect, we left in front of the Congress bouquets made of the exact components used by women to abort in secrecy (PARSLEY, LAUREL, RUDA, FENNEL) in this case, not to honor our politicians but to demonstrate exactly the opposite, calling the attention of the media and the society over this issue.

We created a new icon of protest. The Bouquet of dishonor, which was adopted by the vast majority of women to protest virtually during covid times through social media on this important date.

Being a nonprofit organization, Amnesty lacks a big communication budget. We knew we needed an activation with big impact using the least amount of economic resources possible to raise awareness on this issue on such an important date. The clever use of everyday plants gave us the opportunity to create a powerful icon to call the attention of media and society even outside our country.

On September 23rd, International Safe Abortion Day, Argentina's National Congress was flooded with hundreds of bouquets with the help of a group of collaborators and activists. The installation caught the eye of people and the local media in a matter of minutes helping us spread the news through traditional and social media almost instantly. Although the bouquets where removed by police, the message was kept alive on social media through the whole day drawing attention on our politicians and adding pressure on them.

We encouraged women and society to share the bouquet on social media mentioning Argentina's Congress official account and tagging its location on every social media platform giving them the opportunity to send their bouquets to the Congress virtually and also giving women the possibility to stage a demonstration during lockdown times.

Data:

IN JUST 48HS WE ACHIEVED:

+2M IMPRESSIONS

+500K INTERACTIONS

Thanks to popular pressure and various demonstrations that took place that day, we helped to achieve something incredible: safe abortion is legal in Argentina.