About the Book
"There are many women like Belén whose names we don’t know, but whose stories are just as important. An uplifting chronicle of one woman’s fight for justice."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Foreword by Margaret Atwood
The heartbreaking true story of an Argentinian woman imprisoned for having a miscarriage—an injustice that galvanized a feminist movement and became a global rallying cry in the fight for reproductive rights.
In 2014, Belén, a twenty-five-year-old woman living in rural Argentina, went to the hospital for a stomachache—and soon found herself in prison. While at the hospital she had a miscarriage—without knowing she was pregnant. Because of the nation’s repressive laws surrounding abortion and reproductive rights, the doctors were forced to report her to the authorities. Despite her protestations, Belén was convicted and sentenced to two years for homicide.
Belén’s imprisonment is a glaring example of how women’s health care has become increasingly criminalized, putting the most vulnerable—BIPOC, rural, and low-income—women at greater risk of prosecution. Belén’s cause became the centerpiece of a movement to achieve greater protections for all women. After two failed attempts to clear her name, Belén met feminist lawyer Soledad Deza, who quickly rallied Amnesty International and ignited an international feminist movement around #niunamas—not one more—symbolized by thousands of demonstrators around the globe donning white masks, the same kind of mask Belén wore when leaving prison. The #niunamas movement was instrumental in pressuring Argentine president Alberto Fernández to decriminalize abortion in 2021.
In this gripping and personal account of the case and its impact on local law, Ana Correa, one of Argentina’s leading journalists and activists, makes clear that what happened to Belén could happen to any woman—and that we all have the power to raise our collective voices and demand change.
Translated by Julia Sanches
About the Author :
Ana Elena Correa is a lawyer, journalist, and women’s rights activist based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She hosts the literature podcast Nota al pie and was one of the organizers behind the Ni Una Menos women’s rights campaign in 2015. What Happened to Belén is her first book.
Julia Sanches is a literary translator working from Portuguese, Spanish, and Catalan. Recent translations include Undiscovered by Gabriela Wiener, shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2024, Boulder by Eva Baltasar, shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2023, and Migratory Birds by Mariana Oliver, for which she won the 2022 PEN translation prize. Born in Brazil, she currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
Margaret Atwood, whose work has been published in more than forty-five countries, is the author of over fifty books, including fiction, poetry, critical essays, and graphic novels. In addition to The Handmaid’s Tale, now an award-winning television series, her works include Cat’s Eye, short-listed for the 1989 Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize; The MaddAddam Trilogy; The Heart Goes Last; Hag-Seed; The Testaments, which won the Booker Prize and was long-listed for the Giller Prize; and the poetry collection Dearly. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Franz Kafka International Literary Prize, the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Los Angeles Times Innovator’s Award. In 2019 she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in Great Britain for her services to literature. She lives in Toronto.
Review :
"What Happened to Belén is a harrowing and revelatory account of how one woman’s life was turned upside down and how she never stopped fighting for her innocence. Ana Correa poignantly recounts how so many systems failed Belen, the movement that sprung to action to free her, and most importantly, what happened to Belen in Belen’s own words on her own terms. This is an essential read detailing the harms created by police in healthcare settings, abortion stigma, and the criminalization of pregnancy outcomes whether it’s in Argentina or the United States of America." — Renee Bracey Sherman, abortion activist, founder of We Testify, and author of Liberating Abortion
"As this stirring account shows, there are many women like Belén whose names we don’t know, but whose stories are just as important. An uplifting chronicle of one woman’s fight for justice." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A poignant and inspiring account of women organizing on behalf of women." — Publishers Weekly
"Ana Correa poignantly recounts how so many systems failed Belén, the movement that sprung to action to free her . . . an essential read detailing the harms created by police in healthcare settings, abortion stigma, and the criminalization of pregnancy outcomes whether it’s in Argentina or the United States of America." — Literary Hub
"In this gripping, moving, and personal account, Correa shows how Belén’s experience could happen to any woman but at the same time, we all have the power to raise our collective voices and demand change." — HipLatina
