Argentine Senate to vote on historic bill to legalize abortion

The procedure has long been a controversial issue in the country with a Catholic majority, with the impending vote galvanizing activists on both sides of the debate.

Abortion rights activists and anti-abortion protesters organized demonstrations in front of the Argentine National Congress Palace in Buenos Aires, where the vote will take place.

Mariela Belski, executive director of Amnesty International Argentina and ambassador of the global movement for women’s rights Ela Decide, was preparing to travel to the Senate on Tuesday afternoon, where she will attend the debate and the subsequent vote taking place within the Chamber.

Belski told CNN that if the law is passed, “it will open a new era for women’s rights in our country”.

She added that it would turn “what is really happening in this country into a law. Every day people here have abortions – and this law says that abortion exists”.

Women’s reproductive rights groups hope that if the bill is passed in Argentina – the third most populous country in South America – it could pave the way for broader reform across the region.

Tamara Taraciuk Broner, interim deputy director of the Human Rights Watch (HRW) Division of the Americas, told CNN that if the law is passed, “it will send a very strong message to the region that it is possible to move ahead with legalizing abortion – even in a Catholic country like Argentina. “

Protesters hold up a banner that says, "Abortion," outside the National Congress in Buenos Aires on December 10.

Abortion in Argentina is currently permitted only when the pregnancy results from rape or if the pregnancy endangers the woman’s life or health. In all other circumstances, abortion is illegal and punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Broner explained that people who are currently entitled to abortion do not really have “a real opportunity to do so because they face huge barriers”. Argentine doctors have the option of “conscientiously objecting” to having abortions, for example, if this is against their religious or personal beliefs.

If the Senate votes in favor of the proposed law, abortion will be legalized in all cases within 14 weeks.

Earlier this month, the country’s Chamber of Deputies passed the government-backed bill. The Chamber of Deputies approved the bill on December 11 with 131 votes in favor, 117 against and six abstentions, before being referred to the Senate for debate and decision on Tuesday.

Amnesty International welcomed the approval of the lower house and called on the country’s Senate not to “turn away” from women.

“Legal abortion is an imperative for social justice, reproductive justice and human rights,” said Belski.

Belski said in a statement that the national debate on abortion has been positive in recent years, as “it has managed to make visible the failure to criminalize women as a state policy”.

Argentine abortion bill supported by lower house of Congress

“The Senate must now end clandestine abortions. Legalizing abortion saves lives and addresses a fundamental public health problem, ”she said.

Nearly 40,000 women and children in Argentina were hospitalized in 2016 as a result of unsafe or unsafe abortions, according to an HRW report.

Citing data from the Ministry of National Health, the HRW report found that 39,025 women and girls were admitted to public hospitals for health problems arising from miscarriages or miscarriages, with more than 6,000 of them aged 10 to 19 years.

If passed, experts say the new law will allow teenagers aged 13 to 16 with normal pregnancies to access abortion services without a guardian.

The project also uses inclusive language that recognizes that not all people who become pregnant identify themselves as women.

Camila Fernandez, a self-styled transgender woman who was instrumental in boosting the project’s language that says “people capable of becoming pregnant”, told CNN that young people and the LGBTQ community were instrumental in challenging an “adult centrist and patriarchal power that perpetuated privileges and injustices. ”

Argentina’s current restrictions on abortion are replicated across South America.

In the Latin America and Caribbean region, only Cuba, Uruguay, French Guiana and Guyana allow elective abortion, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. In Mexico City and the Mexican state of Oaxaca, abortions are also available on request, but are severely restricted throughout the rest of Mexico.

In contrast, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Suriname prohibit abortion in almost all circumstances. Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Panama allow abortion only if it is to preserve women’s health or help save their lives.

‘Worrying numbers’

In 2018, during President Mauricio Macri’s conservative administration, a previous attempt to legalize abortion in Argentina passed the House, but was narrowly defeated in the Senate.

Abortion rights advocates from a large number of human rights groups and women organized mass demonstrations across the country in support of this vote, wearing green scarves to represent their support – a movement that has come to be known as the green wave.

Anti-abortion activists protest the decriminalization of abortion in Buenos Aires on Monday.

He also had great support from the anti-abortion movement that wore blue – the color of the “save both lives” movement and the national flag.

Both groups have continued to demonstrate since then, with the abortion rights movement now overwhelmed by the support of President Alberto Fernández, who has been in power for more than a year.

In a speech recorded in November 2019, shortly before his inauguration, Fernández pledged to “end the criminalization of abortion”, highlighting his commitment to a campaign promise.

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With a green tie – a symbol of the movement for the right to abortion – Fernández said that the criminalization of the procedure unfairly punishes “poor and vulnerable women”, adding that they are the “biggest victims” of the Argentine legal system.

“The criminalization of abortion was useless,” he said, noting that “it only allowed abortions to take place clandestinely in worrying numbers.”

Fernández said more than 3,000 people have died from illegal abortions since 1983.

There are no official data available on how many illegal abortions take place in Argentina, but the Ministry of Health estimates that between 371,965 and 522,000 procedures are performed annually.

Although the government has a majority in the Senate and Fernández supports the bill, the outcome of the vote is not an inevitable conclusion.

Argentina, Pope Francis’ birthplace, has seen a gradual increase in agnosticism in recent years, although 92% of Argentines still identify themselves as Roman Catholics, according to the CIA.

And while a 1994 constitutional reform removed the requirement that the Argentine president must be Catholic and guarantee freedom of religion, the constitution also consolidates government support for the Catholic Church and recognizes Roman Catholicism as an official religion.

Activists celebrate after the Argentine Chamber of Deputies passed a bill to legalize abortion on December 10.

The Pope – and other Church leaders – also contributed to the debate.

In November, Pope Francis encouraged the anti-abortion group Mujeres de las Villas to “move forward” with their work, writing in a handwritten letter addressed to congresswoman and group intermediary Victoria Morales Gorleri that “the problem of abortion is not primarily a question of religion, but of human ethics, above all of any religious denomination. “

“Is it fair to eliminate a human life to solve a problem? Is it fair to hire a murderer to solve a problem?” He wrote.

Anti-abortion activist and student Agostina López, 20, protested on Monday and was on her way to protest the project on Tuesday. She told CNN that the vote meant “a complete loss of values ​​such as respect for life and women”.

“Without the right to life, none of the other rights makes sense,” said López, adding that if the law is passed, it would send a “false message that killing innocent babies is no longer a serious matter”.

On Saturday, the Church of Argentina called on the Senate to vote against the bill, with Bishop Oscar Ojea, president of the local episcopal conference and a declared opponent of abortion, saying that the vote against the bill was supported by “medical science and law” , Reported Reuters.

If the bill is approved, doctors will still have the option of “conscientiously objecting” to abortion, however, the new law stipulates that anyone who opposes the procedure will have to look for another doctor to do it.

On Tuesday, the Senate will also debate and vote on a complementary bill that will strengthen the social and economic safety net for pregnant women who face economic difficulties and wish to continue with pregnancy.

If approved, the “1,000-day plan” will strengthen services from pregnancy to the first 1,000 days of a child’s life.

CNN’s George Engels and Claudia Dominguez contributed to this report.

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