The Abortion Issue

In Argentina, abortion is illegal except for if the pregnancy puts the woman's life in danger, or if the pregnancy is a result of rape.  This has led to a high number of unsafe and illegal abortion performed each year.  The main cause of maternal mortality in Argentina is complications due to unsafe abortions.  In Argentina, about 40 percent of pregnancies end in abortion.  Even in cases where abortion is legal, many doctors, especially in rural areas, do not have the knowledge of how to perform the abortion or are not willing to perform abortions.  Many times, all women, including the ones within their legal limits, are forced to handle the abortion illegally and often dangerously.  Wealthier women also have an easier time finding a safe clinic to perform the abortion because they have the money and means, but lower class women sometimes must resort to using household objects to perform the task on their own.  Because of the methods that women sometimes use, like placing an object into the uterus, serious injury can easily occur.  When these women go to the hospital, they are often mistreated, even though there are laws requiring staff to act humanly.  The nurses and doctors will go as far as to perform treatment that requires anesthesia without giving the woman anesthesia.  This is a major issue that must be taken care of because it is effecting hundreds of thousands of women each year.

Argentina Cuisine

In most parts or Argentina, the most important meal of the day is lunch and most places close for lunch.  This excludes major cities, like Buenos Aires, because the city must continue to run.  During lunch in most places, everything closes down so people can go home for lunch and enjoy a large, home cooked meal.  A lot of the food in Argentina has European influence.  Pasta, bread, and especially meat are an important part of the cuisine.  Eating beef became a tradition in the 19th century when the Pampas region was filled with cattle and the people took advantage of this convenience.  Today, a very popular dish is milanesa, which is breaded beef that is deep friend.  Also, some beef is even served very traditionally with the hide and hair still attached.  Another popular part of Argentine cuisine is a traditional drink, called yerba mate.  Yerbe mate is similar to tea, but is prepared and drunk differently than in the United States.  Yerba mate is prepared by pouring hot water over the yerba plant leaves, which are being contained in a mate, or gourd, which is decorated with silver.  When the gourd is filled with the hot water, the leaves expand and fill the gourd.  To drink the yerba mate, you use the bombilla, which is a straw with a strainer, that is made of silver.