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Attitude towards contraception in Argentina puts women at risk
Thousands of girls and women in Argentina suffer needlessly because they cannot access contraception, legal abortion and other reproductive health care services, a Human Rights Watch report said today.
An obstacle course of prejudice and shoddy or absent services forced many to seek illegal and often unsafe abortions, it stated. The findings challenged the country's image as a progressive beacon in South America.
The report, Illusions of Care: Lack of Accountability for Reproductive Rights in Argentina, said some 40% of pregnancies ended in abortion–one of the world's highest rates–because laws guaranteeing free and universal contraception were ignored.
"The laws are in place but they have been systematically flouted by hospitals and doctors across the country who refuse, either through ignorance of the law or personal decision, to provide access," said Marianne Mollmann, one of the report's authors.
Given abortion is illegal it is shocking that there are an estimated 500,000 annual abortions, with many women suffering health problems because of botched procedures, said Mollmann. "That is a clear indicator of how badly the government is failing to provide universal access to contraception."