Montecarlo is a small city in the province of Misiones, Argentina, with just under 20,000 inhabitants. Those who walk through its neighborhoods can find cobblestone streets, but most of the roads are made of dirt. Anyone who wants to travel from this town to Posadas, the provincial capital, has to drive for about three hours.

María (who asked not to be identified by her real name to avoid being recognized in her city) says that in Montecarlo, all the neighbors know each other. She has four children: the oldest is 13 years old, and the youngest is just over a year old.

As she speaks, she breastfeeds her baby, and explains that for some time now, she has been in charge of all the household and childcare responsibilities: her husband lost his registered job in February and had to move to a nearby town where he does cleaning work in fields.

In July, María noticed a delay in her period despite using contraceptives. The situation at home was not easy, and supporting four children on an informal income made it difficult for her family to get through each month. She says that having another child was not an option. As soon as she suspected she might be pregnant, she went to her regular gynecologist, who had helped her deliver her children.

During the consultation, María asked about her options for accessing an abortion, but the doctor told her he didn’t perform such procedures and asked her to leave.

After this initial negative response, María got an appointment at the local public hospital. There, she also asked for help, but they couldn’t provide her with information about her alternatives. So, she sought of a third option: she traveled to Eldorado, a neighboring city to Montecarlo, where the public hospital has a family planning section.

There, they sat her down with other patients and explained to all of them how the abortion procedure worked. When some of them asked if the hospital would provide the medication, they were told there wasn’t enough, and they would be given a prescription to buy the abortion-inducing drug misoprostol privately.

“At that moment, I didn’t have 100,000 pesos (about 73 dollars at the parallel exchange rate in July). My husband had lost his registered job, so I went to the public hospital to get it for free,” she explains, adding that she tried to inquire about misoprostol with professionals at the public hospital in her area, but they also didn’t have free medication.

“When I asked, they replied: no, we don’t have any. I started crying, going back home, I was overwhelmed with despair because my husband had gone far away to work, and I was left alone. It felt like every door was closed to me. And I got home crying with my baby in my arms”, María recounts.

Since the start of his administration, the government of Argentina’s President Javier Milei halted the purchase of essential supplies for abortion access and has not delivered a single box of misoprostol, mifepristone, or manual vacuum aspiration cannulas, essential elements to guarantee abortion access for pregnant individuals, according to an information request filed by rights group Amnesty International.

Abortions were legalized in Argentina in 2021 in all cases up to 14 weeks of pregnancy. According to the legislation, a person who wants an abortion has the right to do so safely and free of charge.

However, exercising this right is becoming increasingly difficult in the country this past year, as confirmed by organizations dedicated to monitoring reproductive rights in Argentina, such as Amnesty International, the Latin American team of Justice and Gender, and the Safe Abortion Access Network, among others.

According to the report presented in May by the National Directorate of Sexual and Reproductive Health of Argentina’s Ministry of Health, the distribution of medications and equipment for manual vacuum aspiration had not been carried out until that month due to lack of stock, and the guarantee of these supplies for the remaining months would depend on the progress of the public tender, which at the time of the official response, was underway.

Searching for a workaround

As a last resort, María searched for alternatives online. This is how she came across Amnesty International, an organization that works for the promotion and defense of human rights. Through a form on their website, she shared the obstacles she faced in accessing an abortion in her province, and within a week, professionals from the NGO contacted her and guided her on how to obtain the medications for free to assert her right to a legal, safe, and free abortion.

María is one of the cases where Amnesty International had to intervene to ensure a safe abortion. The law states that individuals who wish to access this procedure must have their right guaranteed within no more than ten days. It took nearly a month for María to get an abortion.

According to the organization, complaints about barriers to accessing voluntary termination of pregnancy through the complaint form available on their website increased by 80% in the year up to August 2024 compared to the previous year.

The contrast with data from previous years is striking, Galkin explains. “While in 2023, nearly 150,000 treatments of the misoprostol and mifepristone combination were guaranteed or distributed nationwide, this year the provinces have not received stock, and we have been confirming this with public information requests to various provinces,” she detailed.

Galkin from Amnesty highlighted that provinces are not only reporting a lack of access to supplies for legal voluntary termination of pregnancy but also a shortage of contraceptive methods. “There is a lot of concern about the impact this will have on family planning,” she emphasized.

A temporary solution

According to Amnesty International and RedAAS, provincial governments are seeking alternatives to fill the gap left by the national government in reproductive health.

“Some provinces have immediately made direct purchases because, otherwise, women’s and pregnant individuals’ rights end up being violated,” explains Galkin.

Ramos adds: “Provinces are purchasing in quantities that probably won’t meet the entire demand, but there is a willingness from some provinces to take on the purchase of supplies.”

The problem with leaving it to each province, both specialists explain, is that it deepens inequalities across different regions of the country, as not all regions have the same resources.

Ramos asserts that the impact of this withdrawal by Milei’s government on public health policies could be twofold: “Women who end up not accessing abortion and who may resort to unsafe abortions or continue a forced pregnancy. Those are the options for a woman who wants an abortion and can’t get the procedure.”

Galkin concludes: “It has been demonstrated, in two years of implementation, how it has contributed to reducing, for example, the maternal mortality rate from abortion by 53% from 2020 to 2022. Legal voluntary termination of pregnancy is another health service that must be included in the mandatory medical program and must be available to the population because it is a public health issue.”

Authorities in Taiwan are warning residents along its eastern coast to brace for the impacts Super Typhoon Kong-rey, which has rapidly intensified as it barrels towards the island after bashing the Philippines.

Kong-rey, moving northwest over the Philippine Sea, reached super-typhoon strength on Wednesday, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC). With winds of 240 kilometers per hour (150 miles per hour), it is the equivalent of a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane.

The powerful typhoon is forecast to make landfall early Thursday (Wednesday evening ET) in Taitung, a sparsely populated county on Taiwan’s mountainous southeastern coast.

“As the typhoon continues to move towards the northwest, almost the whole of Taiwan will be covered by the storm circle later tonight,” meteorologist Chu Mei-lin, with the island’s weather agency, said in a press conference on Wednesday morning.

The Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued a sea warning Tuesday as the storm drew closer. On Wednesday, it also issued a land warning for two southern counties expected to be hit by the storm’s outer bands.

Forecasts show the powerful storm could weaken slightly ahead of making direct landfall on its southeastern coast, but it is still expected to unleash intense downpours, bringing flash flooding, storm surges and the risk of landslides.

“We urge everyone to make preparations accordingly,” Chu warned.

Chu added that waves could reach up to eight meters high when the typhoon makes landfall. There will also be heavy rainfall across Taiwan on Thursday, including in Taipei.

Taiwan’s military has placed about 36,000 soldiers on standby to assist with rescue and relief work, according to its Ministry of National Defense.

More than 6,000 first responders have also been put on standby to assist in response to the typhoon, according to the Central Emergency Operations Center. Most flights and ferries across Taiwan are so far operating as usual, the center said on Wednesday.

Taiwan generally has a strong track record of responding to major typhoons, though remote villages in more mountainous regions can be particularly vulnerable to landslides. Earlier this month, Typhoon Krathon killed four people as it brought particularly heavy rains to the south of the island.

Two outlying islands of Taiwan, Green Island and Orchid Island, suspended work and classes on Wednesday, according the county government.

In recent days, northern parts of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon have been lashed by the outer bands of Kong-rey, known locally as Leon, as authorities ordered evacuations and warned of its impacts after already seeing devastation last week from Tropical Storm Trami, known as Kristine, which killed at least 130 people.

As of Wednesday morning, Kong-rey continued to skirt the island’s north as it moved towards Taiwan.

A large fire has broken out at the site of one of Britain’s biggest defense companies.

Emergency officials said early Wednesday that fire crews and police were responding to the blaze in the vicinity of BAE Systems in Barrow-in-Furness, northwest England.

BAE Systems is one of the largest defense contractors in Europe. Its subsidiary, BAE Systems Submarines, headquartered in Barrow-in-Furness, builds and assembles the UK’s nuclear submarines.

“There is no nuclear risk,” Cumbria Police said in a statement on X. “However, people living nearby are advised to remain indoors and keep doors and windows closed.”

A similar advisory was also shared by the Cumbria Fire & Rescue Services on its X account.

Police said the incident was reported around 12:44 a.m. local time on Wednesday. It did not say the cause of the fire.

Two people have been hospitalized after suffering suspected smoke inhalation, it added.

Photos shared on social media showed flames and smoke rising from an industrial building near the shipyard.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

A British lawmaker has been suspended by the governing Labour Party after footage appeared to show him punching a man repeatedly on the street.

Police are investigating the alleged attack by Mike Amesbury on Friday night, which first came to light after social media footage showed a brawl in the street following the alleged attack.

Subsequent surveillance footage, obtained by the Daily Mail newspaper and published Sunday, appears to show Amesbury talking to a man before punching him in the face and then attempting to strike him again repeatedly on the ground.

Labour said Amesbury is assisting police with their inquiries, and that they have suspended the backbencher “pending an investigation.”

Amesbury has been an member of parliament (MP) since 2017 in Cheshire, northwest England, where the alleged incident took place. He remains an independent member of the House of Commons after losing the party whip.

The lawmaker said in a statement, released before the additional footage was published by the Mail, that he was “involved in an incident that took place after I felt threatened on the street following an evening out with friends.”

He said he had “contacted Cheshire Police myself to report what happened during the incident.”

Cheshire police said in a statement: “A 55-year-old man has been voluntarily interviewed under caution by police in relation to this incident. He has since been released pending further enquiries.”

Labour swept to power in a July general election after 14 years in opposition, winning 411 seats for a commanding majority. Nine of those MPs have since had the whip removed or resigned from the party.

The populist Reform UK party have called for Amesbury to resign and allow a by-election in his seat to take place, which would be the first electoral test of the new government if it were to take place.

MPs are entitled to remain in the Commons after losing the whip. A recall petition in their constituency, which could trigger a by-election, could take place if they were to receive a prison sentence.