This article presents results of the Argentine chapter of the HEXCA research project, on Heterosexualities, Contraception and Abortion in four South American cities. In-depth interviews were conducted with 30 women and 30 men residing in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area, about their experiences of abortion as a landmark in their personal trajectories. Findings show that illegality does not determine the decision to interrupt a pregnancy, but the differential conditions of its clandestine practice; abortion leaves a mark both on women and on men. For low-income women, the first pregnancy results in childbirth, then followed by an abortion; while for middle-class women the first pregnancy results in an abortion, then followed by children. The interruption of a pregnancy is not a response to exceptional situations, but an ordinary part of the process initiated by the suspicion of a pregnancy.
Abortion; Buenos Aires; Argentina; Contraception; Reproductive Trajectories
