Abortion Non-Rights in Argentina

I was chatting with this gal who works at my program about working in public health and what I'm hoping to do blah blah blah and I was stunned to learn that here in Argentina abortions are illegal except in very rare situations.  Hearing this was clearly really troubling to me and I felt like I needed MORE information on what exactly is going on here around reproductive rights. Here's a section from Wikipedia that kinda sums up the laws around abortion specifically:

Abortion in Argentina is strictly limited by law. As of 2008, the Argentine Penal Code establishes severe sanctions for those who cause abortion, either willingly or not, and for women who consent to it, and special punishments for physicians and other healthcare agents. 

In Argentina, abortion is illegal in every case, but it is considered "not punishable" in certain circumstances:

1. If it is performed in order to avoid harm to the woman's life or health, as long as there are no other means to avoid such harm. ("Health" has been interpreted, lately, to include mental as well as physical health, in Buenos Aires Province.)
2. If the pregnancy was the result of rape in a mentally incapable woman (in which case the procedure needs the consent of her legal representative).

Of course this leads to more questions.... what do they mean by a threat to health? who decides if a pregnancy is a threat to your health physically or psychologically? does anyone ever actually qualify? are there even doctors who will preform abortions? Here's a little more Wikipedia info for those who are interested:

It is often the case that women who may have sought an abortion under the legal provisions of the Penal Code are not appropriately (or at all) informed of this possibility by the attending physicians, or are subject to long delays when they request a legal abortion. Physicians, due to lack of knowledge of the law and fearing legal punishment, often demand that the patient or her family request judicial authorization before terminating a pregnancy, which sometimes can extend the wait beyond the time when it is advisable to abort.

From here things start to vary province by province 

In Buenos Aires:

In March 2007, Buenos Aires Province health authorities released a protocol addressing the provision of legal abortion procedures without delays or need for judicial authorization. The main change regarding previous treatments of abortion was the explicit recognition that any case of rape can be a threat to the psychic health of the victim and thus justify an abortion request.

In Santa Fe Province:

In June 2007, the legislative body of Rosario, Santa Fe Province, adopted a protocol similar to that of Buenos Aires. Physicians assisting a woman covered by Article 86 of the Penal Code are obligated to explain her condition to the patient, offering the choice of terminating the pregnancy, as well as counseling before and after the abortion. The protocol explicitly forbids the judicialization of the procedure and warns that physicians who delay a legal abortion are liable to administrative sanctions and civil or penal prosecution. 

I'm not quite clear on what's going on in other parts of the country, but my understanding is that everything is decided based on the personal beliefs of whoever is given the power to make the decision if a woman can have a legal (and safe) abortion.  Wikipedia has outlined a few recent cases to give you an understanding of exactly how things go down and if you are interested go to this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Argentina

What's really crazy is that even in the cases where women are granted the privilege to terminate their pregnancy, many many doctors refuse to do sp.  So women are STILL forced to have an unsanitary "back alley" abortion if they want to terminate their pregnancy. 

As predictable by anyone with the ability to think here are some of the ramifications of not having legal abortions as an option for everyone:

1. Abortion complications are the leading cause of maternal mortality in Argentina (30% of the total, around 100 annual deaths). Many failed abortion attempts and deaths due to them are not recorded as such and/or are not notified to the authorities.
2. Around 80,000 patients per year are hospitalized due to post-abortion complications (and must face legal punishment). Many failed abortion attempts and deaths due to them are not recorded as such and/or are not notified to the authorities.

All this information is firing me up even more to get involved in prevention education in some capacity down here.  I'm not sure how I'm going to make that happen but "where there's a will there's a way" right?  

Prevention education is unbelievable important anywhere in the world for a laundry list of reasons.  However in a location such at Argentina, where if you get get pregnant you have VERY limited choices, prevention education is just that much more crucial! I'm not very well versed in the "foster care" or adoption system here, however from what I do know, if you are at the lower socio-economic side of society and you get pregnant and don't want to be or want to give the baby up, things look pretty fucking grim. 

I just signed a petition to send to the US Congress asking them to reserve at least $1 billion for international family planning that I encourage all of those who believe in this issue to sign.  http://www.amplifyyourvoice.org/main.cfm?s=amplify

Futbol in Buenos Aires... WOAH

I just got back from a futbol game La Boca Juniors Vs. Agentinos Juniors.... I don't even know where to begin.  This shit is totally crazy.  So we get there and everything seems kinda normal.  We get in line for the general admissions area (kinda long but eh...).  Turn your head to the left and you see some riot police hanging out just in case.. o sure I can roll with that. Very gradually things started to get crazy.  

First it was maybe 2 to 5 people just pushing their way through in line... and you're kinda like, what assholes... advance a little in the line.... then it's 15 to 20 people pushing past and you ask yourself why the hell no one is saying anything... advance a little further in line... then it's like 30 to 40 people fucking pushing their way past you and you are pressed up against the wall trying to move forwards and not get swept up with this massive rush of people.  All the while you're going, shit where's ___, oh crap we can't see ____.  I never felt unsafe, just like I was in the moshpit of some hard core punk band where you have to throw an elbow every so often.  

Riot Police: Another day spent monitoring the queue at a futbol game

So we make it to the stadium entrance and  walking up the stairs you're thinking to yourself, wow it kinda smells like pee.... then you look down and the floor and you quickly realize why.  after the pee stairs you finally get into the stadium... I was in awe!!! people were chanting and drumming and waving flags.. such a wonderful sight! of course this is all accompanied with more pushing and shoving to get better "seats" (all standing room only).  We kinda tucked ourselves into a corner to try to avoid being pushed the WHOLE game.  It was so exciting with everyone cheering non-stop and the drums going and people all pumped up! It was nuts to see the police (not the riot squad, but the ones chilling inside the stadium) and how useless they were, not even trying to control people.. for a split second it crossed my mind that if something were to go very wrong it would be REALLY bad, but we were close to the pee stairs, so we would have had an easy (but smelly) exit.  

It must have been about like 30 minutes into the first half when this guy behind me decides I am now his personal arm rest and starts puting his hands on my shoulders as leverage to jump and cheer... He even did this while smoking! All of a sudden I was like, something feels a little hot on my neck.... shit this ass is holding a cigarette in his hand while holing onto my shoulders! I wanted to turn to him and say "excuse me, but I'm not your fucking personal arm rest and if you burn me i'll burn you back", but alas that would be useless unless i could say it in spanish.  but i did keep giving him looks and dropping my shoulders so his hands would come off. no dice.  finally i moved up a step and forced him to move down! 

Despite that one dude behind me, I was enjoying being there and am really happy that I got to experience all the mayhem and excitement.  I saw two goals made which allowed me to yell "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAALLLL"

Going to an Argentinean Fultbol game is something that should be on everyone's "must experience before I get old" list. 

(check back in a day or two for some photos added to this post of the game) 

shower time! 

End of Week One, the fun has begun

Hola TODOS! Things are going just swimmingly here. Over the weekend I got to experience the "Argentinean" way of going out (i.e. eat dinner around 10:30, go to the bar around 12 then to the club around 2:30, home by 8:00 AM). You would think this would be a challenge if you're not used to it (I was thinking there's NO WAY i'm going to be able to stay out until even 6AM!), but before you know it the sun in coming up and you're like, well shit I suppose it's time to go home.

Friday night was the program welcome party, lots of fun. It was at this place called ACABAR which is pretty chill. Lost of games to play, good drinks, food yada yada. After that, a few of us headed out to the clubs but ended up in this square with a few large scale bars. Got WAY lost trying to walk to the Subte around 6:00AM (think walking in the exact opposite direction for like an hour, then being like, crap where are we?!) But hey, it's all one big adventure! I made it home around 8:00AM and slept until 4PM the next day.... rough life I have here huh? LOL

Saturday it was the birthday of a gal in the program so a few of us went out to dinner at this place that was AMAZINGLY delicious with massive portions. Even the dudes at the table had to throw in the towel. It was like $25 pesos (divid by 3ish to get dollars) for a HUGE plate of meat (I went for something different of course). so with stage one complete, we headed back to ACABAR and played some jenga, then into stage 3 the CLUB ... let me tell you, it has been a cool while since I've been to a true euro styled dance club. Picture huge dance floor, people engaging in all kinds of club related debauchery, lasers going, named DJs. Portland wouldn't know what to do if a club like this opened up! Super fun, dancing blah blah. Ended up at the Argentina equivalent of Denny's around 7:00... home by 8:30AM.

Anywho, today I woke up around 1:30 and went to this market in Ricoleta with a few people from the program.... feel like I found a GOLD MINE of amazingly awesome stuff no one needs but are compelled to buy. I got some wonder woman earrings and finger puppets (a blue dog and a pink bear). Around 5, all these people started setting up to play music, juggle all kinds of objects, tight rope walk... you name it in the grassy areas surrounding the market. Really neat and a lot of things to look at. ALL kinds of music from drumming, to rock band, to peruvian flute band.

Anywho, that's kinda a rundown of my weekend.

Hugs and Kisses to all those I misses :)

Popping the Blog Cherry

5...4....3....2.....1  BLOG! 

Well, I suppose most everyone gets to a point in their life when they decided to try blogging for the first time.  To some it can be a very dangerous choice and should be made with caution. There have been many studies showing that people get addicted to blogging after their FRIST TIME!  Good thing I've never been in one of those studies!  

Some of you may be wondering why I'm starting a blog. Honestly, I'm too lazy to enter all your e-mail addresses into the send box of a mass e-mail and always end up forgetting to include someone so I send it again, then realize I forgot someone else which means I have to send it again... which may sound easy, but it actually entails quite a bit of effort commanding on the keyboard.  And this way you can read whatever shit I have to say when and more importantly if you want to. 

Reading over this I've realized that it's a little drenched in sarcasm.  I've been listening to a lot of Savage Love, needn't say more.  

OK on to Buenos Aires and my life's goings on here.  Yesterday I met up with a friend of Kristen's (Scripps) who is teaching english down here.  Her and some of her friends also teaching here (all really awesome people and if you want english classes in BA I'll hook you up with them) were going to this things called Spanglish Argentina so they invited me along.  It kinda feels like speed dating (i think?), but the point is to practice speaking with a native speaker.  So you spend 10 minutes with each person (5 in english and 5 in spanish) then you rotate partners.  It really was a lot of fun and I got to meet some Argentines!  The one issue I faced was my total lack of spanish speaking ability.  I'd only had 2 spanish classes at this point... so 2.5 hours of trying to converse was a little painful.  Alas I got through it and exchanged e-mails with a few locals who told me about some chill things to do in the city.  

hmmmm... anything else worth mentioning.... oh yeah the Subte (subway) is hot as BALLS! that shit needs upgrading! where is tampax when you need them! 

I suppose that's it for now.  Tune in later for another chapter of my life in argentina.