Argentina’s president Javier Milei takes the “chainsaw” to women’s rights.

MARCH 13, 2025

Activists take advantage of a red light to hold up a banner that says, “Not respecting the abortion law is a crime,” during a demonstration outside a hospital in San Isidro, in the province of Buenos Aires, on November 28, 2024. (© Anita Pouchard Serra)

The woman I met at the abortion rights rally outside a hospital on the outskirts of Buenos Aires was apprehensive.

She had lost her job in the health ministry in early 2024, as part of a wave of government layoffs instigated by the newly elected Argentina president, Javier Milei. She was reinstated a few months later but advised to keep a low profile — no more speaking to the press over reproductive rights.

Milei, a libertarian elected in November 2023, has called abortion “aggravated murder” and has slashed funding for misoprostol and mifepristone, medication used to carry out abortion. Under the previous government, the state made bulk purchases for both and paid for their distribution; the drugs were administered free of cost through the public health care system. Milei’s government has suspended this distribution, leaving the purchase of abortion drugs in the hands of provincial authorities. In provinces that are cash-strapped, or that are run by politicians who oppose abortion, this has effectively left women with inadequate access to care.

Under Milei, the government has also scaled back spending on contraceptives, struck its support for sex education programming, eliminated the Ministry of Women, Genders and Diversity and made other symbolic moves, such as banning the use of gender-neutral language in the civil service, including in official documentation.

Although Milei’s spokesperson has repeatedly told the press that repealing the law that made abortion legal in 2020 is not a priority for his government, a high-ranking member of his administration suggested that a push to repeal or change the law could happen as early as this year. Last year, a small contingent of legislators who are members of Milei’s La Libertad Avanza party floated a proposal to abolish the law, which was quickly withdrawn. Vice President Victoria Villarruel has also made her opposition to abortion known, posting on social media that “abortion will never be a right. Argentina should be the land of Life.” The federal health ministry did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this piece.

The government’s spending cuts have left provinces scrambling to fill the gap. A report released in December by three research groups on reproductive rights describes how several provincial governments have difficulty meeting the sexual health needs of residents, largely because they have to absorb new costs. REDAAS, the Network of Safe Abortion Access in Argentina, said there has been a “brutal decline” in financing for measures that are essential to the delivery of free abortion services through the public health care system, as is guaranteed by law. In some cases, women must buy the medication themselves, which can cost around 170,000 Argentine pesos for both drugs (roughly $160, according to the official exchange rate) or 100,000 pesos for misoprostol alone ($90).

Without regular orders from the government, a state-owned laboratory in the province of Santa Fe that manufactures misoprostol and mifepristone is unable to produce as much as it did before. Provincial governments increasingly have to turn to private, more expensive, laboratories to fill their stocks. “Some provinces have seen access to abortion services practically dismantled,” according to Carlota Ramirez, who oversees the department of gender and health equality in the province of Buenos Aires. “Others, like the province of Buenos Aires, are maintaining them with a huge financial effort.”

“The national government has also banned its technical teams from holding abortion training and has even prohibited discussion of abortion in work meetings,” according to Ramirez.

**LEFT: Gisela Stablun, director of sexual and reproductive health at the health ministry of the province of Buenos Aires, in her office. (© Anita Pouchard Serra).**
**RIGHT: Stablun points to San Miguel, a district of the city of Buenos Aires where legal abortion services are not provided. (© Anita Pouchard Serra)**

The province of Buenos Aires is the largest in Argentina, home to more than one third of the country’s population. Unlike the more conservative provinces of the north, where access to abortion was already spotty before Milei came to power, nearly all districts in Buenos Aires provide abortion services. Its staunchly pro-choice governor, Axel Kicillof, has carved out room in the budget to guarantee medical care for women seeking an abortion. (He is also trying to position himself as a possible alternative to Milei in future presidential elections.)

And yet, even in Buenos Aires, there are places where abortion has become harder to access and women are unclear about their rights, offering a glimpse of the far-reaching effects of Milei’s policies and pushing campaigners out into the street again.

In San Isidro, where the rally in November photographed here occurred, the only hospital to provide abortion services also introduced measures that made seeking an abortion more complicated. It set up a unit staffed by non-medical volunteers who tried to steer women away from abortion. In one case, documented by Amnesty International, volunteers “mistreated” a woman who came seeking an abortion, pressing her with “invasive questions” and drawing on personal information to try to pressure her to change her mind. The woman ended up going to another municipality to access the procedure, according to Amnesty International.

“A lot of women have arrived at the hospital looking for an abortion and [the volunteers] are showing them videos that had been used prior to legalization, with dead fetuses. There are women who say they were made to carry a plastic baby to awaken their maternal instinct,” said Manuela Schuppisser, a councillor in San Isidro who attended the pro-abortion rights rally. “It’s pretty sinister.” (The volunteers have since been removed following political pressure, and the unit is now staffed by a nurse, officials said.)

**LEFT: Manuela Schuppisser, councilor of San Isidro, during the demonstration outside the hospital on November 28, 2024. (© Anita Pouchard Serra)**
**RIGHT: An information stand belonging to the campaign for legal abortion. (© Anita Pouchard Serra)**

Health officials have also reported an uptick in anti-abortion campaigners who attempt to intercept women on their way to abortion clinics or hospitals where the procedures are carried out. In December, a pair of women stationed themselves outside a clinic in the municipality of Tigre wearing green, the color associated with the campaign to legalize abortion. They handed out pamphlets that warned of the dangers of medical abortions, claiming that the information came from Planned Parenthood. The women refused to answer our questions but told us they wanted to make sure women who came to the clinic did not feel alone. Doctors at the clinic told us the campaigners were trying to convince women to reconsider their decision to have an abortion.

**The entrance to Hospital Belgrano in San Martin, in the province of Buenos Aires. (© Anita Pouchard Serra)**

Hospital Belgrano, in the province of Buenos Aires, has set up a unit that mainly offers late-stage abortions to women from the area. Soft music plays in the waiting room, and decorative lamps cast a warm glow. Officials hold it up as a model — it’s the only hospital in the province to have a separate, dedicated space for abortion care.

The unit is led by Ailin Carrillo. After Milei’s victory, she noticed that doctors who disagree with the right to abortion started to review clinical histories to ensure that practitioners were complying with the rules surrounding later term abortions. Still, she doesn’t feel threatened because she knows her team has the support of hospital officials, who allowed them to set up a dedicated office to administer care.

**Ailin Carrillo explains a procedure during a training day on safe abortion practices at Hospital Belgrano. (© Anita Pouchard Serra)**

**Florencia Pose reads the medical history of six women seeking an abortion at Hospital Belgrano to prepare for their preliminary interviews. (© Anita Pouchard Serra)**

Many women who come to the clinic feel a sense of guilt, often rooted in their religious beliefs, Florencia Pose, the psychologist employed by the unit, told us. Over the past year, she has noticed an increase in women who are seeking abortion for financial reasons, because they simply can’t afford to have another child.

Milei’s “chainsaw” approach to government spending saw him cut federal spending by some 30 percent in real terms in his first year in office — arguably inspiring the cutbacks being unleashed now by the Trump administration on the U.S. government. The Argentine president closed nine of 18 government ministries, including the environment, education, labor and culture ministries, whose functions were absorbed into larger ministries. It halted public works projects, dramatically reduced subsidies to transport and utilities, and eliminated a number of price controls, from the price beef and milk, to limits on rent increases and health premiums. While the drop in spending is credited with dramatically slowing down the rate of inflation, it has also resulted in tens of thousands of job losses and higher costs, leaving many struggling to pay the bills.

Health practitioners and provincial officials seek to ensure that women understand their rights. When the government scaled back funding for the national health helpline, the province of Buenos Aires expanded its own. The province also regularly uses its social media channels to remind women that abortion is legal and offer resources for guidance.

Still, issues crop up. In January, women’s rights groups raised the alarm when the local government in San Isidro appointed a staunchly anti-abortion medical practitioner to head up its health department. That person remains in his post.