It has been a whirlwind of two weeks since I landed in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the city that most of my extended family calls home.
I am doing an independent project here focusing on the debate over legalization of abortion and sexual health advocacy. Right now, abortion is mostly illegal in Argentina with the exceptions of if it is a result of rape or if it puts the woman’s health in danger. This law is currently being debated over on both a community and a political level with slightly over half the nation remaining steadfast in their Catholic beliefs and others more liberally concerned with the health and wellbeing of women who are unfit to become mothers.
I am partnering with the “Centro de Salud Numero 15”, a small clinic in Jose Leon Suarez about an hour outside of the city. Their stance on abortion is more liberal than the other clinics in the area. They operate using something similar to the WHO definition of health, a “state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” to widen the scope of this law and allow more women who are unfit to carry or have a child abort legally through a process they refer to as ILE. This clinic’s mission is to spread awareness and to work towards increasing sex education and availability of contraception to diminish the necessity of abortions to begin with while also working towards making abortion an available last option.
I was welcomed with open arms from my family that I have only met once, the doctors and health promoters in the Centro de Salud, and the community of Jose Leon Suarez. I am beyond thrilled to get to know these amazing people and work with them towards achieving their inspiring goals.