Abortion and women’s and men’s trajectories in Buenos Aires

This article presents results of the Argentine chapter of the HEXCA research project, on Heterosexualities, Contraception and Abortion in four South American cities. In-depth interviews were conducted with 30 women and 30 men residing in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area, about their experiences of abortion as a landmark in their personal trajectories. Findings show that illegality does not determine the decision to interrupt a pregnancy, but the differential conditions of its clandestine practice; abortion leaves a mark both on women and on men. For low-income women, the first pregnancy results in childbirth, then followed by an abortion; while for middle-class women the first pregnancy results in an abortion, then followed by children. The interruption of a pregnancy is not a response to exceptional situations, but an ordinary part of the process initiated by the suspicion of a pregnancy.

Abortion; Buenos Aires; Argentina; Contraception; Reproductive Trajectories