Abortos seguros e inseguros: Costos monetarios totales y costos para el sistema de salud de la Argentina en 2018

Abstract

During the first semester of 2018, a profound debate on the legalization of the practice of abortion was initiated in Argentina, which exposed the lack of scientific studies addressing the economic dimension of abortion in this country. This work seeks to move forward in the quantification of the costs of abortion under two scenarios: the current context of illegality and the potential costs if the recommended international protocols were applied in a context of legalization of the practice. The results of the comparison between, on the one hand, the total monetary costs in 2018 (private or outof-pocket expenditure and costs for the health care system) of the current scenario of illegality and unsafe practice of abortion and, on the other hand, potential scenarios of safe practices, shows that a large amount of resources could be saved if the recommended protocols were implemented. These results proved to be robust after carrying out a series of sensitivity exercises on the main assumptions included in the comparisons.