Rights at Risk: Protecting Medical Abortion in Argentina

Paz*, a medical student in Argentina with aspirations of becoming a trauma surgeon after graduation, has been an advocate for safe and legal abortions in both her professional and personal life, as she’s worked as a safe abortion companion for the past six years.

With her abortion companion training enhanced by her medical education, Paz can explain the process of abortion care in a way that is understood by the people she accompanies, including the effects and reasons behind medications used in self-managed abortions, mifepristone and misoprostol.

“The abortion experience with misoprostol alone or with mifepristone and misoprostol combined is very different,” Paz explained. “Not so much in the sense of effectiveness or safety, but in the fact that mifepristone makes abortions much less painful, faster and with fewer post-abortion side effects.”

Since 2018, Paz has accompanied people who decide to have an abortion at La Revuelta, a Fòs Feminista partner based in Neuquén that provides information about self-managed abortion and in-person, text and phone-based accompaniment to people who opt for this method, as well as coordination with health teams when necessary.

After several years of experience as an abortion companion, Paz found out she was pregnant and was supported by her colleagues at La Revuelta as she sought a self-managed abortion using mifepristone and misoprostol.

“I was five weeks pregnant, and the process was very simple – I took both medications and had almost no symptoms or much pain. It was a calm process,” said Paz. “The fact that I was able to use mifepristone offered me the peace of mind of knowing that everything will be fine.”

When Eugenia*, a 41-year-old mother, sought accompaniment for a self-managed abortion, she had already learned about the benefits of mifepristone in La Revuelta’s informational materials, giving her a sense of relief throughout the process. 

“Being able to access a safe and uneventful abortion at my age truly saved my life,” Eugenia said. “The use of mifepristone reduced my pain, in addition to giving me peace of mind.”

Eugenia, a 41-year-old mother, who accessed key information to exercise her right to a self-managed abortion thanks to the support of La Revuelta.

After Argentina enacted a new law in 2020 allowing abortions on demand anytime up to 14 weeks of gestation —ending a 100-year period in which abortion was only legal in cases of rape or when a pregnant person’s health or life was at serious risk—La Revuelta has accompanied as many as 1,200 people annually and provided many more with resources and information about the different options that are available.

In March of 2023, Argentina officially approved the use of mifepristone, guaranteeing higher quality self-managed abortions. “Argentina’s first abortion guidelines after the 2020 legalization already recognized mifepristone and misoprostol as the gold standard for medical abortion, as recommended by the World Health Organization, but only misoprostol was registered and approved in the country back then. The approval of mifespristone was an important step toward the Argentinian government guaranteeing access to high quality medical abortion,” said Ruth Zurbriggen, founder of La Revuelta.

But despite its widespread usage in thousands of safe and effective abortions across Argentina, mifepristone has faced mounting threats since President Javier Milei’s election in December of 2023. While no legislative abortion rollbacks have taken place yet, the Milei administration slashed the country’s healthcare budget earlier this year, which threatens to sharply reduce access to abortion.

“There is a great risk for the whole sexual and reproductive health movement in Argentina,” said Belén Grosso, who has been a member of La Revuelta since 2010. “The lack of supplies is notable since the national government stopped sending medication to the provinces, leading to resource-dependent inequalities and broader inconsistencies from province to province.”

Furthermore, President Milei and members of his party have sought to fuel negative perceptions of abortion, as well as other types of sexual and reproductive care. Belén and Ruth noted the return of harmful narratives around abortion in political discourse, making it more difficult for organizations like La Revuelta to continue educational efforts and maintain relationships with healthcare providers. 

“As a collective and as part of the broader movement, we’re working toward eliminating the association of abortion with risk or as being problematic,” Ruth said. “We want society to see abortion as a basic health need and as a safe procedure in the hopes of removing judgmental attitudes around the decision and procedure. The many reasons why people seek abortions are irrelevant in this regard – it is all healthcare.”

While Argentina has been at the forefront of the Green Wave, which emerged in 2018 as diverse civil society groups – including the feminist movement and the The National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe, and Free Abortion –, coalesced around demanding that Argentine lawmakers decriminalize abortion leading up to the 2020 legalization, it now risks joining the alarming number of countries that are rolling back sexual and reproductive healthcare.

As the Green Wave rises in other Latin American nations like Mexico and Colombia, the growing threats coming from President Milei’s administration mirror the early stages of events in the United States, where the Supreme Court gutted the legal right to abortion in 2022 and anti-rights groups have attempted to ban medication that has safely been used to end pregnancies.

“The issue of medicinal access under the Milei government is complex,” Paz said. “There is a lack of budget and supplies for everything in healthcare, not just abortion, but surely mifepristone and misoprostol are not among the new administration’s priorities.”

Given the importance of mifepristone in improving the safety and comfort of people seeking self-managed abortions, La Revuelta is urging continued education to build awareness among Argentinians about their right to abortion under current laws and about ways they can safely self-manage an abortion with support from La Revuelta’s network.

“All women need access to information about abortion and to know that it is their right in Argentina,” said Eugenia. “They need to know each person has the freedom to decide about their own body, and whenever anyone threatens that, there will always be many of us to stand up and defend this right.”

Looking to the future, La Revuelta and its allies across the Green Wave movement will continue to stand in solidarity against the rollback of rights, in the hopes of preserving their hard-won victories in Argentina thus far. Similarly, Paz hopes to carry forward the principles and practice of informed healthcare companionship in her future medical career.

“Accompanying people in their journey to access abortion fills me with meaning,” said Paz. “Abortion is a public health issue but is still surrounded by a lot of silence and stigma. I am committed to making abortion an open topic wherever I am, in all aspects of my life, even if it means fighting.”

*Paz’s and Eugenia’s lasts names were omitted to protect their privacy.