The enactment of the IVE law marked a before and after in Argentina.
The sanction of the law on voluntary interruption of pregnancy (IVE) caused women to arrive at the first consultation with much more information and lower hospitalizations on guard for incomplete abortions, since the process is highly supervised, according to specialists.
Florencia Copello, one of the professionals who perform IVE interventions in the public and private sectors, told Télam that “aspirations are done with sedation and local anesthesia and are extremely well tolerated. When the woman is sure to terminate the pregnancy a trauma is not generated, it is important to underline it so as not to generate a pathology of the abortion,” he explained.
In turn, Copello celebrated that since the sanction of IVE women arrive at the first consultation with much more information and that, as was foreseeable, hospitalizations on guard for incomplete abortions would drop a lot, because the process is highly supervised.
Meanwhile, Ailín Carrillo, who is a member of the IVE-ILE team at Hospital Belgrano de San Martín and is , explained to Télam the step-by-step protocol that is applied when a woman who requests the practice arrives.
“Sometimes seven interviews are required for the woman to decide what to do. Many variables have to be cleared up, for example if she says she wants to continue because she is afraid of dying in practice. There you have to explain a lot about the procedure” Ailin Carrillo-obstetrician
“The first thing that is done is to ask for an ultrasound and depending on the week of pregnancy that you are studying, it is defined if you are going to be prescribed pills or if it is appropriate to do a Manual Endo Uterine Aspiration (MVA), which is done with local anesthesia. If the procedure is going to be done with pills, the woman must have them in four days, after signing the informed consent,” he explained.
Ten days after the end of the practice, the health team and the woman define what other contraceptive method will be applied to avoid a new unwanted pregnancy, he added.
The woman has the right to be contained and informed by a social worker and a psychologistif required and the interruption of pregnancy is not always defined in the first interview, he added.
The health team and the woman define which contraceptive method will be applied to avoid a new unwanted pregnancy.
“The key guiding question is usually ‘do you want to maternity now?’ And in some cases the answer is exhaustive, but in others it takes more time for the woman to dive inside herself to find her desire. Hers, not others’, “Carrillo completed.
“Sometimes seven interviews are required for the woman to decide what to do. Many variables must be cleared up, for example if she says she wants to continue because she is afraid of dying in practice. There there is a lot to explain about the procedure. In addition, it can still generate guilt, there are family pressures. It also happens sometimes that the woman wants to have it and the family pressures her so that she does not have it,” she said.
For her part, Ana Morillo, coordinator of the Health area of the organization Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir, made a “very positive” assessment of the validity of the IVE, and of the work carried out every day throughout the country to that hospital staff have the necessary information to sensitize doctors, seeking that there are more and more places where the practice is carried out and fewer conscientious objectors.
“The key guiding question is usually ‘do you want to maternity now?’ and in some cases the answer is exhaustive, but in others it takes more time for the woman to dive inside herself to find her desire. Hers, not others “Ailin Carrillo-OBGYN
“Today we have coverage in all provincial jurisdictions with enormous differences, but it is guaranteed. In Misiones and Formosa we worked hard to raise awareness among health teams and practice improved a lot. In Misiones, as soon as the law was passed, there were 6 services and now there are 40, it is a job to go to all the provinces to train face to face. You have to talk about the law, When you know what the treatment is like, something changes in the staff. Sometimes, the workers think that they are going to have more work or fear that something will go wrong and that is worked on by talking,” he explained.
Treatments with pills were also improving in these two years. “That we have misoprostol and now misepristone is a huge advance. They are combined and abortion is much more effective and less painful,” she said.
In his opinion, a pending subject is to work on the training of the practice in the cases allowed for the second trimester of pregnancy. “You have to guarantee that there are specialized professionals in some provinces,” she said.
