Mabel Bianco

Mabel Bianco (born 1941) is an Argentine physician who has devoted her career to fighting for women's access to improved health services and sex education. In 1989, she established the Foundation for Studies and Research on Women (Fundación para Estudio e Investigación de la Mujer; FEIM), and has continued to serve as its president. She has been an activist in Latin America and the world, introducing policies addressing breast cancer, HIV/AIDS, reproductive rights and gender reform in the UN.

Early life Born in Buenos Aires in 1941, Bianco studied medicine at the Universidad del Salvador (1958–1964), earned a master's degree in public health from Colombia's Universidad del Valle in 1968 and specialized in epidemiology and medical statistics at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (1971–1972).

Career

After teaching at the University of Buenos Aires public health school (1972–1976), she created the Epidemiological Research Centre (Centro de Investigaciones Epidemiológicas) at the National Academy of Medicine in 1981.

Working as an advisor at the Argentine Ministry of Health from 1983, she created a programme on Women, Health and Development and assisted in ratifying the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. She promoted a study on maternal mortality which revealed that in the absence of family planning, poor women risked unsafe abortions. Following a change of government in 1989, Bianco left the health ministry. That year she founded FEIM in order to promote women's reproductive rights as a means of improving access to safe abortion. Despite concrete improvements, in most cases, abortion continued to be illegal in Argentina. She has also created and chaired a number of other groups, including the Argentine Women's Health Network HERA (Health, Empowerment, Rights, and Accountability).

Awards Among the many awards and distinctions received by Mabel Bianco are: 2019: One of the BBC's "100 inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2019"