Abortion and Access to Reproductive Health in Latin America & the Caribbean

[Bessie F.]

Hey everyone,

I wanted to check in and see if anyone from Argentina, or Latin American & the Caribbean is being affected by the outcome of the Argentinian Senate vote earlier this month.

In short:

Two weeks ago, on August 9, the Argentinian Senate rejected a bill to legalize abortion. Several grass-roots movements and activist groups all across Latin America had spent the last few years fighting for this bill to pass. Women all over Argentina had been marching for several weeks leading up to what many had hoped would be a historic date, for Argentina and the whole region.

Only two countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (Cuba and Uruguay) allow for legal abortion without any restrictions. Each year hundreds of thousands of women from the region die from complications from unsafe abortions. Access to reproductive health is not any better, as health professionals will often use their personal religious and ideological views to refuse to provide any form of contraception methods. Because of this (and many other reasons), the Argentinian Senate vote was a big deal for all the women of the region. The outcome was heartbreaking, to say the least.

I just wanted to put this here in case we have any users from the region feeling upset by what happened and wanting to talk.