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Abstract
Background Until the legalisation of abortion in Argentina in 2021, the Socorristas en Red, a network of feminist collectives, provided support and information (‘accompaniment’) to people self-managing their abortion with medications. Following legalisation, the Socorristas continued accompanying people self-managing or accessing abortion through the healthcare system. We conducted a cross-sectional study to understand preferences, experiences and choices about abortion when contacting a Socorristas hotline after legalisation of abortion in Argentina.
Methods We surveyed callers to the Socorristas’ hotline in Neuquén, Argentina about their demographics, pregnancy history, reasons for calling, and experiences seeking abortion through the hotline and the healthcare system. We assessed overall prevalence of these experiences, and analysed differences between people who contacted the health system before calling the hotline and those who first called the hotline for services.
Results Of the 755 callers in the study, the majority (63.3%) contacted the Socorristas because they trusted them, and 21.7% called because they both trusted the Socorristas and did not want to go to the healthcare system. At the end of the call, most people (95.4%) chose to self-manage their abortion with accompaniment outside the healthcare system. People who called the healthcare system prior to contacting the hotline frequently reported being referred to the Socorristas, as well as challenges scheduling appointments.
Conclusions After legalisation of abortion in Argentina there is continued demand for accompaniment. Globally, ensuring that accompaniment and self-management of abortion is legal and protected will provide individuals with the support and facilitated access to the abortion care they desire.
- abortion
- Health Services Accessibility
- Patient Advocacy
- Reproductive Health
Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. The study protocol, analysis plan and instruments are available upon request. All data requests should be submitted to the first author for consideration. Access to the anonymised data might be granted after review and approval of an investigator-initiated concept note by the all co-authors, and after the investigator signs a data access agreement.
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Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. The study protocol, analysis plan and instruments are available upon request. All data requests should be submitted to the first author for consideration. Access to the anonymised data might be granted after review and approval of an investigator-initiated concept note by the all co-authors, and after the investigator signs a data access agreement.
Footnotes
Contributors BK-O conceived of, designed, analysed and is the guarantor of the study. SF designed and analysed the study. BGr and RZ designed the study and planned and conducted data collection. EJ, JTC, BGo and CG contributed to the design and analysis. All authors contributed to the interpretation of results, writing and reporting.
Funding Funding for dissemination of this study was received from Harvard University’s Rose Service Learning Fellowship and David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research. Refer to the Methods section for further details.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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