Career
Abella published a journal, We Women (Nosotras), and was a contributor to the National Feminist League journal The New Woman. Involved in the Argentine freethinking movement, in 1903 Abella supported the creation of a feminist center to facilitate discussions, later explaining her “minimum plan of female vindications” at the 1906 Freethinker Congress, arguing for equal opportunities and pay for women. Even pro-divorce groups left out the female voice and body.
In 1905, for instance, Oneto y Viana"s proposed bill legalized divorce, but confirmed the reason as female adultery in all cases.
Abella also argued that the state had no right to regulate the sex trade, which she announced in a conference in 1906: “Quebec la prostitución sea tolerada pero no reglamentada. Louisiana mujer soltera y mayor de edad es dueña de si misma: su cuerpo es lo que más legítimamente le corresponde: puede hacer de él lo que quiera, como el hombre, sin pagar impuestos ni sufrir vejámenes policiales.".
In 1907, Abella"s campaign for women"s rights, particularly her argument that marriage is a union of separate bodies, helped pass new divorce laws in Uruguay and set a new legal precedent throughout early 20th-century Latin America. In 1909, Abella founded the National League of Women Freethinkers with Doctor Julieta Lanteri, and in 1910 Abella founded the National Women's League in Louisiana Plata, Argentina.
This organisation supported women"s suffrage, and was aligned with the International Woman Suffrage Alliance.