Rodolfo Gómez Ponce De León, Deborah L. Billings, and Karina Barrionuevo. “Woman-Centered Post-Abortion Care in Public Hospitals in Tucumán, Argentina: Assessing Quality of Care and Its Link to Human Rights.” Health and Human Rights 9, no. 1 (2006): 174-201. doi:10.2307/4065395.

In this study, the author discusses the epidemic of unsafe abortions continuing to rake through Argentina due to the lack of rights women possess over their own bodies. The main focus of the article deals with the issue of post-abortion care for women after attempting an unsafe abortion or for a complete abortion procedure. The author conducts observations of 3 different hospitals in 2006 located in the poorest region of Argentina named Tucuman. The hospitals range from maternity to general and lastly, regional. They are not optimal locations for abortion care however, the maternity hospital comes the closest in decent care for the women. Unfortunately, abortion is not accepted in Tucuman due to the extremely Roman Catholic background with which the region identifies with. Abortion is completely illegal in all of Argentina so the doctors were under the authority to report women to the authorities after a procedure was completed. All of issues lead to the biggest one of them all which is human rights in Argentina, specifically abortion and how it still has a long way to go even to the present day.

Throughout the study, the author ties together their observations to the larger issue of human rights. The data presenting the lack or technology for proper post-abortion care and the shocking amount of maternal deaths during abortions substantially supported the author’s argument of needing to fight for these women’s rights to their own bodies. Quotes directly from patients and doctors were all provided throughout the study which displayed the opinions towards abortions from the people of Tucuman directly. It is extremely beneficial to support an argument with voices from people actually experiencing the situation at hand.  Another point is that the study itself is also translated in Spanish so the audience for this study ranges widely from the Argentine people to other English speaking nations to showcase the oppression these women are suffering through.

For further research into the topic of abortion rights in Argentina, this study provides a general background on the main aspects of the issue in smaller and more closed off areas of the region. The fact that the research is done in a smaller area addresses the more difficult aspect of it being cut off from where the big fight for abortion rights is located which is more urbanized areas with a larger population. Human rights is such a broad and vague topic but this particular study is extremely specific to further research I am solely interested in. Although it is a little further dated, it is useful for background information on abortion rights.