The U.S. Could Learn From Argentina's Groundbreaking Plan to Reduce Maternal and Childhood Mortalit
(a lengthy, very interesting read)
The U.S. Could Learn From Argentina’s Groundbreaking Plan to Reduce Maternal and Childhood Mortality
4/19/2022 by Kim D. Ricardo
Argentina’s 1,000-Day Plan aims to reduce maternal and childhood mortality with direct payments and free supplies for pregnant people. If anti-abortion advocates are serious about reducing U.S. abortions, Congress could pass similar legislation.
On Dec. 30, 2021, the Argentine Congress passed a bill to legalize abortion until 14 weeks, a historic move in a region with some of the world’s most restrictive abortion laws. Pro-choice demonstrators wait for the result of the vote. (Marcelo Endelli / Getty Images)
The United States Supreme Court seems poised to either overturn Roe v. Wade or simply interpret it out of meaningful existence. While doing so would jeopardize the lives and health of pregnant people in states like Texas and Idaho, abortion access would remain intact for residents of large progressive states like California and New York. If those championing anti-abortion laws are serious about reducing the absolute number of abortions, they should pressure Congress to pass national legislation that both makes pregnancy safer and provides support for early childhood development after birth.
It’s not a novel idea. Last year, after the country decriminalized abortion—joining Cuba, Guyana and Uruguay— Argentina passed the Comprehensive Attention and Healthcare During Pregnancy and Early Childhood Law, also known as the 1,000-Day Plan. It wasn’t a hard sell. The 1,000-Day Plan won unanimous support in the Argentine Senate when it passed in December 2020. The 1,000-Day Plan aims to reduce and prevent maternal and childhood mortality by providing state support in the form of direct payments and free food, milk, vaccines and medicine to pregnant people and infant children. By providing financial assistance during the entire pregnancy through monthly payments and then annually for children up to the age of three, the 1,000-Day Plan offers people, especially poor women, a real choice between abortion and continuing a pregnancy when economic factors are in play. As Argentine President Alberto Fernández explained at a press conference marking the one-year anniversary of the law, “We had to guarantee both the freedom of the woman who chooses to terminate her pregnancy as well as the freedom of the woman who decides to have her child. We need equal rights; these laws expand rights.”
Since the law became effective in January 2021, Argentina’s Ministry of Health has started a campaign to educate the public about the benefits of the 1,000-Day Plan and the national social security administration is currently administering payments through its website. During the second quarter of 2021, the program counted 73,946 pregnant people as beneficiaries.
We had to guarantee both the freedom of the woman who chooses to terminate her pregnancy as well as the freedom of the woman who decides to have her child. We need equal rights; these laws expand rights.
Argentine President Alberto Fernández
It is still too early to accurately measure the law’s impact on abortion rates. What we do know is that prior to decriminalization, Argentina saw 500,000 abortions per year—a figure that represented 40 percent of all pregnancies. In other words, the previous abortion ban did not lower abortion rates, it only hampered access to care.
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https://msmagazine.com/2022/04/19/pro-life-laws-argentina-1000-day-plan-maternal-mortality/