What’s Happening in Argentina? The Quiet Dismantling of Programs for Vulnerable Women

In recent months, Argentina has begun shutting down several state programs aimed at supporting women and gender-diverse people in vulnerable situations. These include initiatives that provided shelter for survivors of gender-based violence, distributed free menstrual products for girls in poor neighborhoods, and offered legal or psychological support for victims of abuse.

The official reason? According to the current administration, these initiatives are “ideological” and part of what they call “gender ideology.”

But what does that actually mean? And more importantly — who is paying the price?

From support to silence

One of the first major cuts was the closure of the national program that distributed free menstrual hygiene products in public schools and community centers. For many girls, these products were the difference between attending class or staying home. In under-resourced neighborhoods, the lack of access to sanitary products reinforces cycles of educational exclusion and poverty.

Shortly after, the government began dismantling regional networks that offered housing and emergency legal assistance to women fleeing domestic violence. These services weren’t symbolic — they were often the difference between life and death. Safe houses provided temporary refuge for women and children escaping violent homes. Legal support helped survivors navigate a justice system that is already slow and underfunded.

In a country where a woman is killed every 35 hours due to femicide, these cuts are not neutral. They are lethal. And they send a dangerous message: that the lives and safety of women and LGBTQ+ people are negotiable, expendable, and disposable.

The “gender ideology” smokescreen

The concept of “gender ideology” is increasingly being used as a blanket excuse to dismantle public policies aimed at equity and care. But in practice, what’s being attacked isn’t ideology — it’s the very infrastructure that allows women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people to survive and exist with dignity.

Labeling these programs as ideological allows the government to reframe care as indoctrination, and empathy as excess. But menstruation is not ideology. Domestic violence is not ideology. Poverty is not ideology. These are material realities that affect millions of people, and they require material solutions — not political scapegoats.

Around the world, we’ve seen how the term “gender ideology” has been weaponized by conservative governments to roll back reproductive rights, queer rights, and protections against gender violence. Argentina is now following that same dangerous playbook, turning basic social protections into targets.

Who is being left behind?

When programs are cut, real people suffer. These are not abstract policy shifts. They are direct attacks on lives already marked by vulnerability and injustice.

• Women living in poverty who can’t afford basic hygiene.
• Girls missing school during their periods because they lack pads or tampons.
• Survivors of abuse who now have nowhere to go, and no one to help them navigate the legal system.
• Social workers and educators who relied on these tools to protect their students, neighbors, or patients — now left without the means to intervene.
• LGBTQ+ youth who depended on community-based centers for counseling and support in hostile environments.

Behind every “cut” there is a person now without protection. There’s a mother sleeping on a friend’s couch with her children. A girl dropping out of school. A trans teen with nowhere to go.

This is not about partisanship — it’s about dignity

You don’t need to be part of a political party to understand that dismantling services for the most vulnerable isn’t reform — it’s erasure.

The right to live without violence, to manage your health, to access justice and shelter — these are not luxuries. They are rights. And when those rights are taken away quietly, with bureaucratic language and no public debate, it is our job to make noise.

This moment demands clarity and courage. If care is ideological, then perhaps we need more ideology — not less. Because without these protections, silence becomes complicity.