“We are there putting our bodies on the line for others:” Embodied care work of Mexican abortion acompañantes

In this paper, I explore the embodied care work of Mexican abortion activists, known as acompañantes. To do so, I draw on Latin American feminist understandings of poner el cuerpo and cuerpos insurgentes to demonstrate how the activists’ bodies are intimately entangled with their accompaniment practice. This paper examines the following research question: How is care embodied by abortion activists in Mexico? Centering the bodily knowledge of 25 abortion activists in Mexico, I identify five central themes that demonstrate the embodied experience of abortion accompaniment: (1) Body as a tool; (2) The physical labor of accompaniment; (3) The emotional toll of accompaniment; (4) Body on the line; and (5) Body and/as territory. In doing so, I show how abortion activists engage their politicized bodies as sites of power and resistance to provide a form of insurgent care work for individuals’ seeking abortion that resists state violence. As such, I argue that the activists offer an alternate form of care to bodies that have been alienated and violated by the state. • Abortion accompaniment is an embodied care practice • Abortion activists in Mexico use their bodies as tools to facilitate abortion care • Body mapping is a participatory art method well suited understanding embodiment