Buenos Aires: A year ago Argentina joined the rank of limited Latin American countries to legalize abortion, but while it gives hope to millions of women, converting mentally, practices and infrastructure has proven to be more difficult.
“In small villages, you go for ultrasonography in the morning and in the afternoon Baker congratulates you in your pregnancy,” said Monik Rodriguez, 33, told AFP.
Rodriguez, who has three children, runs services that accompany women who want to have abortions in Salta, a conservative Catholic province in the South American country.
Far from the big city of Buenos Aires, where women erupted in celebrations when the law was approved, many in more remote and conservative areas of Argentina face the same stigma as before.
“There are still things that need to get out of hiding,” Rodriguez said, which could take up to 125 phone calls a month as part of a project launched by the strength of civilian women.
“The most important thing is to listen.
It’s about trying to overcome obstacles, accompanying them through the health system so they are not lost in the labyrinth of the bureaucracy.” Rodriguez received calls from all kinds: teenagers and first moments for women with large families and even those who were pre-menopause.
“In this line, abortion is not recommended but also a romantic mother,” said Rodriguez, who underwent a secret abortion a decade ago when it was one child.
“I’m late and do abortion.
It runs badly and I have to go to the hospital.
The test shows I haven’t gotten pregnant.” It is confidentiality that creates worries.
Along with the wrong information, that’s what makes us risky.
“The government estimates that 3,000 women die between 1983 and 2020 in clandestine abortion, where there are up to 500,000 per year.
– Anti-abortion pressure – for a century, abortion is only legal in the case of rape or if the mother’s life is risky.
Legalization has not caused abortion Sudden abortion, especially in places such as Salta.
Miranda Ruiz, 33, is the only doctor in a small town at 75,000 people in Tartagal Salta not to train their legal rights to become a careful objector to do abortion.
Groups Anti-abortion in the influential city bring another doctor to the heel, “said Sofia Fernandez, a national campaign member for the right.
For collective abortion of 300 feminist organizations t After fighting for 15 years for change.
They said there were 1,500 people facing criminal cases for abortion.
Complaints against Ruiz were the only ones made in 2021, although there were 36 court submissions on the law, most of which claimed was not constitutional.
“From them, 24 has been dismissed,” said Valeria Isla, Director of Sexual and Reproductive Health at the Ministry of Health.
– Large inequality – “There is a large inequality in access to practice depending on location,” Isla said.
During 2021, the number of specialist medical teams that carry out abortion rose from 943 to 1,243 even though the pandemic made it difficult for the problem.
The distribution of drug misoprostol, which was chemically provoked abortion, up from 9,000 in 2019 to more than 43,000 in 2021.
But there are many requests and we cannot improve (the number) (team) at the level needed.
This is a blocking block Structural, “Isla added.
There are more than 32,000 abortions carried out at public hospitals and clinics in 2021, said Isla, whose big goal for 2022 is to train a medical team that specializes in abortion, to make their services more available and to notify women rights They and their tools at their disposal.
It would help Rodriguez avoid receiving calls from young teenagers who were desperate like one “locked in the bathroom crying he had just dropped a home pregnancy test in the toilet and could not afford the other.”