BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) – Argentina’s innovative abortion law goes into effect on Sunday under the watchful eyes of groups of women and government officials, who hope to ensure its full implementation despite opposition from some conservative and religious groups.
Argentina became the largest nation in Latin America to legalize elective abortion after its Senate, on December 30, passed a law guaranteeing the procedure until the 14th week of pregnancy and in addition in cases of rape or when women’s health is at risk.
The vote was hailed as a triumph for the feminist movement in the South American country, which could pave the way for similar actions across the socially conservative and strongly Catholic region.
But Pope Francis issued a last-minute appeal before the vote and Church leaders criticized the decision. Advocates of the law say they expect lawsuits from anti-abortion groups in Argentina’s conservative provinces and some private health clinics may refuse to do so.
“We have another big task ahead of us,” said Argentine Minister for Women, Gender and Diversity, Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta, who acknowledged that there will be obstacles to the full implementation of the law across the country.
Gómez Alcorta said that a telephone line will be installed “for those who do not have access to abortion to communicate”.
The Argentine Catholic Church repudiated the law and conservative groups of doctors and lawyers called for resistance. Doctors and health professionals can claim conscientious objection to having abortions, but they cannot claim the right if the life or health of a pregnant woman is in danger.
A statement signed by the Consortium of Catholic Doctors, Catholic Lawyers Corporation and other groups urged doctors and lawyers to “resist with nobility, firmness and courage the rule that legalizes the abominable crime of abortion”.
The anti-abortion group Unidad Provida also urged doctors, nurses and technicians to fight for their “freedom of conscience” and promised “to accompany them in whatever evidence is necessary”.
According to the law, private health centers that do not have doctors willing to have abortions must refer women seeking abortions to clinics that do. Any public official or health authority who unreasonably delays an abortion will be punished with a prison sentence of three months to one year.
The National Campaign for the Right to Safe, Free and Legal Abortion, an umbrella group of organizations that for years have fought for legal abortion, often wearing green handkerchiefs in protests, promised to “continue to monitor law enforcement”.
“We trust the feminist networks that we have built over decades,” said Laura Salomé, one of the movement’s members.
An earlier bill on abortion was rejected by Argentine lawmakers in 2018 by a narrow margin. But in the December vote he was supported by the center-left government, driven by the so-called “piba” revolution, from Argentine slang for “girls”, and opinion polls showing the opposition have slowed down.
Defenders of the law expect a reaction in Argentina’s conservative provinces. In the northern province of Salta, a federal judge this week rejected a measure by a former congressman calling for the law to be suspended because the legislature has outgrown its powers. Opponents of abortion cite international treaties signed by Argentina that pledge to protect life from conception.
Gómez Alcorta said the criminal charges currently pending against more than 1,500 women and doctors who performed abortions should be dropped. She said the number of women and doctors detained “was not so much” but did not provide a number.
“The Ministry of Women will exercise its leadership” to close these cases, she said.
Tamara Grinberg, 32, who had a clandestine abortion in 2012, celebrated that from now on “a girl can go to the hospital and say ‘I want to have an abortion’”.
She said that when she had the abortion, few people helped her. “Today there are many more support networks … and the decision is respected. When I did that, no one respected my decision. “
Although abortion is already permitted in some other parts of Latin America – such as Uruguay, Cuba and Mexico City – its legalization in Argentina is expected to resonate throughout the region, where dangerous clandestine procedures continue to be the norm half a century after the right to a woman the choice was guaranteed in the USA
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AP journalists Víctor Caivano and Yésica Brumec contributed to this report.