Safe shortcut to sidestep illegal abortion in Argentina
August 14, 2009
Marcela Valente, IPS News
Tired of calling for the decriminalization of abortion - the leading cause of maternal death in Argentina - a network of women's rights activists launched a telephone hotline to inform women on a safe abortion method that requires no medical intervention: the use of a pill to terminate pregnancy.
"We make information approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Latin American Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics Societies available to women," Verónica Marsano, a member of Lesbians and Feminists for the Decriminalization of Abortion, the organization spearheading the initiative, explained to IPS.
According to this information, a drug called misoprostol - also known as RU486 or medication abortion - can be used by women to safely interrupt an unwanted pregnancy up to the ninth week of gestation. The medicine, which works by causing contractions of the womb that result in the body expelling the pregnancy, has an effectiveness rate of more than 80 percent. "The associated risk is one percent and is never mortal," said Marsano, who received special training for the initiative.
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