Amnesty International warned on Wednesday that Argentina was used as a "test site" for depriving international abortion rights as it cuts funding for birth control pills and ends the distribution of abortion pills.

Before President Javier Milei took office in December 2023, the state purchased abortion pills and then distributed them for free through the public health system.

According to data collected by Amnesty International, the state provided more than 166,000 doses of misoprostol and a combined mifepristone-misoprostol treatment in 2023, known as a combination bag. But it was not delivered last year, and the responsibility was quietly handed over to the country's 23 provinces.

Amnesty said the shift “hinders the opportunity for women to have abortion services”, with more than half of the provinces reporting shortages of misoprostol and nearly all reporting shortages of mifeketone and combinations.

According to Argentina's network to obtain safe abortion, the change is the biggest impact on provinces where politicians are anti-abortion or have fewer economic resources.

The Mirar project, an initiative to monitor the implementation of abortion laws, said provinces have been working to negotiate prices as efficiently as the state and some have no budget for drug purchases. A report found that in some cases women were forced to buy their own medicine, which said it could cost about $160 (£120).

Amnesty warns that reproductive health policies promoted by the far-right Argentina government are linked to Project 25, a superconservative policy blueprint advocated by the Trump administration in the United States.

Mariela Belski, director of Amnesty International Argentina, said she believes “Argentina has been used as a test reason for several policies in the Heritage Foundation’s 2025 program,” including restrictions on the opportunities for abortion and restrictions on broader sexual and reproductive rights.

"This is part of a strong global opposition, trying to remove the hard hit gains from women. This is also happening under Donald Trump's leadership in countries like the United States and Hungary," Belski said.

After all protests known as the Green Wave movement, Argentina legalized abortions for up to 14 weeks during all pregnancy. Previously, the procedure was only allowed in rape cases or in the health of women.

Legalization heralds the success of women's rights in Argentina and the region. Between 2021 and 2023, Argentina's public sector provided 283,000 voluntary and legal abortions, while the number of abortion-related deaths was more than half of the number of abortion-related deaths between 2020 and 2022.

But since seizing power, Miley has removed dozens of public policies related to women's rights. He closed the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity, cut plans to combat gender violence and drastically cut funds for contraceptives.

Argentine leader told a high school student audience that abortion should be seen as “aggravated murder” and announced to the World Economic Forum that feminists are “promoters of bloody, murderous abortion agenda.”

Milei said during the campaign that the pro-select Argentines were “brainwashed by the murder policy” and vowed to hold a referendum to overturn the abortion law.

In February 2024, a small group of lawmakers from Milei’s La Libertad Avanza Party continued to do so, submitting a bill in Congress to repeal the landmarks of the 2020 abortion law. The bill was quickly withdrawn, but in December, a senior administration member said efforts to repeal or change the law could continue this year.

In Tucuman, a conservative province in northwestern Argentina, health care providers say they have witnessed an increase in unsafe abortions due to delays in supply and misinformation.

Gynecologist Adriana Alvarez, who has aborted at a public hospital in Tucumán, said supplies have been interrupted several times in the past year.

"As we saw years ago, we are seeing unsafe abortions now. They are driving underground," she said. "We're backwards."

Amnesty said it received 120 complaints from women asking for their help and reports of hindered attempts to access last year's abortion, up from 32 in 2023.

Alvarez said women arrived at the clinic with "fear in their eyes." “They said they don’t want their families to find the answers, or because people they know are working there, or going to certain hospitals,” she said.

"We have women coming to ask if they are still allowed to have an abortion," she said. "They are afraid of going to jail."

Healthcare professionals warn that the people who are most affected are the poorest and most vulnerable women in society, and some are easily misunderstood on social media.

Fundación Mujeres X Mujeres lawyer and president Soledad Deza, who helped women obtain miscarriages, said the shift in official policies has confused women about the legitimacy of abortion.

“There are so much discussions about abortion as a murder that women don’t know whether they exercise their rights or commit crimes,” she said.

According to medical professionals nationwide, Miley's anti-abortion rhetoric has also prompted more and more doctors in Argentina to refuse to terminate.

Julieta Bazán, a doctor in Buenos Aires, said whether it is an ultrasound staff, nurses or doctors, whether it is due to discrimination and lack of resources, “no longer wants to guarantee” the right to abortion. She said the “striking” shortage of abortion pills is “a violation of our law.”