When Abortion Is Illegal, Women Rarely Die. But They Still Suffer.

In August, the Argentine Senate rejected a bill that would have decriminalized abortion in the country within the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. Less than a week later, the newspaper Clairín reported that a 34-year-old woman died from septic shock after attempting to terminate her own pregnancy using parsley.

The woman, referred to only as Elizabeth, became one of the 40-some Argentine women who die each year from unsafe abortions. “Illegality forces the poorest women to use the most desperate practices,” one doctor was quoted as saying.

In the United States, abortion is expected to become further restricted with Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court. Legal experts that the majority-conservative court likely won’t overturn , but rather will chip away at abortion rights by narrowing the circumstances in which a woman can obtain the procedure. women’s-rights advocates this might lead to more and more women like Elizabeth in the United States. But while