Free access to contraceptive methods, the telephone line that advises on sexual and reproductive rights, the networking of health professionals in the provinces and the monitoring of the implementation of the legal abortion law are part of the achievements that define the 20 years of the application of the law on Sexual and Reproductive Health (SSyR) in Argentina.
Law 25,673, sanctioned on October 31, 2002, recognized sexual and reproductive health as a right of the population and made it the responsibility of the State to develop public policies to guarantee it.
As a balance, a federal meeting is being held in Buenos Aires these Mondays and Tuesdays, with the participation of leaders from all over the country, to analyze the advances and challenges of access to law.
“The achievements in sexual and reproductive health are the result of the incidence of feminisms and women’s movements throughout the country, the first programs and laws on this right were provincial”Valeria Isla, national director of SSyR, told Télam.
During the opening of the federal meeting, which took place at the San Martín Palace, the director of Women and Gender Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship, Silvina Montenegro, celebrated that “the advances that our country made in the subjectsuch as the historic enactment of the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy law (IVE) and the Comprehensive Health Care and Attention law during Pregnancy and Early Childhood in December 2020, positions us in a place of reference among the countries that guarantee the full exercise of the sexual and reproductive rights of women and of all people with the capacity to gestate”.
In this sense, the official added that “in an international context in which many countries fight for the elimination of rights already enshrined, our region, Latin America and the Caribbean and Argentina in particular, must continue to show its leadership and firmly defend its position of defense of what has been achieved so as not to go backwards and to advance in the conquest of the recognition of more rights”.
“The achievements in sexual and reproductive health are the result of the incidence of feminisms and women’s movements throughout the country, the first programs and laws on this right were provincial”
Valeria Island
In Argentina, the history of public policies on this right begins with the return of democracy, in 1983. In 1986 the Responsible Procreation Program of the city of Buenos Aires was created, in 1987 that of Río Negro, and between 1991 and 2001,14 provinces enact their own regulations.
With the enactment of the national SSyR law, in 2002 a process began where -among others and based on an official report to which Télam had access- milestones such as the first national purchase of contraceptive methods in 2002, the enactment of the Surgical Contraception and Comprehensive Sexual Education laws in 2006, the creation of the National Comprehensive Health Program for Adolescents in 2007, and the enactment of Law 25,485 that recognizes obstetric violenceagainst reproductive and institutional freedom, and the launch of the 0800 222 3444 Sexual Health line in 2010.
Other milestones are the incorporation of the subdermal implant and the IUS (intrauterine system) to the basket of free contraceptive methods in 2013, the creation of the National Plan for the Prevention of Unintentional Adolescent Pregnancy (ENIA) in 2017, the Voluntary Interruption Law of Pregnancy in 2020 and the first distribution in the public health system of combined treatments for medical abortion in 2022.
In dialogue with Télam, Isla highlighted as “an enormous achievement” the first purchase and distribution of contraceptives in 2002, and in 2010 “reaching 5,600 health centers with the sexual health kit” since “this greatly improved the free availability of free contraceptive methods, a process that continues and is optimized to this day”.
According to official figures, in 2021, first-aid kits were distributed to 5,769 health care providers in 39 jurisdictional warehouses.
At the same time that these public health policies were given, in these 20 years in the country there have been constructions from civil society that accompanied the process such as the National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe and Free Abortion, and the first line that informed on abortion “More information less risks” of the collective Lesbians and Feminists for the Decriminalization of Abortion.
The Safe Abortion Access Network (Redaas) was also created, the Socorristas en Red began to accompany people who abort, the Ni Una Menos movement was produced, and the Network of Chairs on Comprehensive Sexual Education and the Right to Abortion (RUDE).
Legislation sanctioned in these years also marked the adequacy of policies in SSyR, such as gender identity.
Favorable judicial rulings that set precedents in situations of young people who were denied access to abortion despite being able to access the right, such as LMR in the province of Buenos Aires or that of FAL, also influenced the construction of strategies public in S&R.
In addition, when in 2015 the Civil and Commercial Code of the Nation was updated incorporating the rules of capacity and consent for minors and for people with disabilities, the health program was adapted to this new standard.
Island highlighted that The 0800 222 3444 line “was key to the direct link with the population to remove access barriers and provide information.”
State statistics indicated that the hotline received a total of 2,437 calls in the first year of operation (2010), and by 2021, there were 30,041 queries, 93% related to access to legal (ILE) and voluntary (IVE) terminations of pregnancy. .
With the ILE/IVE law in force, in 2021 73,487 interventions were carried out in the public health system, according to the official report.
Regarding the challenges, the national director of SSyR highlighted “continuing to improve free access to contraceptive methods, strengthening the autonomous decisions of the population and being able to carry out a national survey on sexual and reproductive health.”
He also pointed out that “there is a demand to continue strengthening the Enia Plan in the provinces that is being carried out and also the minister (Carla Vizzotti) announced in the Federal Health Council a federalization of the plan.”
