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Argentinian doctor faces jail for giving legal abortion

Abortion was legalised in Argentina in 2020, but the charges brought against Dr Miranda Ruiz show the battle for reproductive rights is not over.

Ruiz went to work one Friday in September knowing she was likely to be arrested. The prosecutor of Tartagal, a city in Argentinaʼs province of Salta, had announced his intentions the day before: that Ruiz, 34, would be detained for administering an abortion – in a country that had legalised the procedure less than a year earlier.

“I couldnʼt believe it, it was very surreal,” said Ruiz. “Itʼs crazy to jail a doctor who performed a legal abortion when there is a national law that permits it.”

In December 2020, Argentina legalised all abortion up to 14 weeks, and in later stages of pregnancy if life or health is at risk, or in rape cases.

It was a victory for reproductive rights campaigners. But feminists, human rights groups and government officials, say Ruizʼs case is an example of the battles still being waged in Argentina. The minister of women, gender and diversity, Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta, has called the charges an attempt to “discipline” doctors who are guaranteeing a right.

The Guardian reports that Ruiz had been working in a drop-in clinic in Tartagal when a 21-year-old came in. A team of doctors assessed the woman, who was 22 weeks’ pregnant, and determined she met the criteria for a late-stage abortion – her health was at risk. Ruiz prescribed misoprostol, a drug that induces miscarriage, and admitted the woman.

Days later the woman’s family filed a criminal complaint.

Ruiz was released a few hours after her arrest, but the charges against her have since been broadened to include providing an abortion without consent – something she denies.

“The person puts pills under her tongue for half an hour, and then swallows. That procedure is repeated every three hours. No one can force someone to abort in those circumstances,” says Ruiz, one of just a handful of doctors to provide abortions in Tartagal.

In the first year since abortion was legalised, 64,164 terminations were recorded. The number of health centres that provided abortions increased from 907 to 1,347. In the province of Buenos Aires, home to a third of the population, the number of municipalities offering abortions jumped from 38% to 96%, according to government data.

“The symbolic effect of the law has been strong, at least in our province,” says Soledad Deza, a renowned feminist lawyer, who heads the Tucumán-based organisation Mujeres x Mujeres (Women for Women). Tucumán, a very conservative province, saw the number of official abortions jump from about 600 a year to more than 4,000 after legalisation.

But other provinces have recorded far fewer abortions, and the national government has had to defend the legislation. The Guardian reports that at least 37 legal challenges have been mounted since the law passed; 26 have been thrown out, four were archived and seven are awaiting judgment.

Gabriela Chavez, a nurse in Resistencia, the capital of the northern province Chaco, says there is a fear among health professionals of a backlash to providing abortions but things are changing. “A few years ago, youʼd walk down the halls of the hospital and people might say, there goes that aborter – but now itʼs something that is more accepted,” she says.

But Deza says anti-abortion campaigners are now targeting later-stage pregnancies, which has potential implications for younger women. Argentina has a high rate of teenage pregnancies, which are often disclosed late and the result of abuse.

In Ruizʼs case, a local politician publicised the case through social media. Ruiz said misinformation spread widely, including the claim that “the foetus cried”.

Ruiz is fighting to have her charges thrown out by the court. In the meantime, she continues to see women seeking abortions at the clinic. Thereʼs an uptick in demand since her arrest. “All of this had the unexpected effect of strengthening the attention we give to [abortion],” she says.

 

The Guardian article – ‘It’s crazy’: the doctor who faces jail in Argentina for giving a legal abortion (Open access)

 

See more from MedicalBrief archives:

 

Spain, in effect, criminalises protests outside abortion clinics

 

Ecuador to allow rape victims access to abortions

 

El Salvador releases woman jailed for 10 years after miscarriage

 

Poor information limiting safe abortion choice in SA

 

Women in Northern Ireland struggle to access abortion services

 

 

 

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