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Is the law. In Argentina, women who decide to interrupt their pregnancy can do so legally, safely and free of charge in the health system. The Senate approved in the early hours of Wednesday the legalization of abortion until the 14th week of pregnancy by 39 votes in favor, 29 against and one abstention. Thus he buried the law in force since 1921, which considered the practice a crime, except in the case of rape or risk to the life of the mother. In the streets, the green tide, the symbolic color of the feminist in the country, exploded with joy.
With the new legislation, Argentina is once again at the forefront of social rights in Latin America. As of this Wednesday, it is the first large country in the region that allows women to decide about their body and whether or not they want to be mothers, as Uruguay, Cuba, Guyana and French Guiana (and regions such as Ciudad de Mexico). . In the others, there are total or partial restrictions, as in Brazil. The initiative, approved by the Chamber of Deputies two weeks ago, establishes that pregnant women have access to legal abortion until week 14 after signing the written consent. It also establishes a maximum period of ten days between the request for termination of pregnancy and its termination, in order to avoid maneuvers that delay the abortion.
The pressure from religious and conservative groups to maintain the criminalization of abortion had been very strong, but not enough to repeat the result of 2018, when the Senate rejected the bill. Still, a strong legal offensive is expected. In the country of Pope Francis, the Church still has a lot of prestige. And not only because it works together with the State to serve the poorest, through hundreds of soup kitchens. Francisco’s closeness to President Alberto Fernández, who ended up supporting legalization, is evident, and the issue of abortion has always been an uncomfortable terrain for disputes. The square in front of the Congress was proof of this. On the sky side, displaying the colors of the country, where anti-abortion groups met, priests celebrated masses in front of makeshift altars and protesters carried crosses and rosaries, ultrasound photographs and a huge bloody cardboard fetus.
Unlike in the Chamber of Deputies, where approval was weak, the outcome in the more conservative Senate was more uncertain. But from the beginning, the anticipation followed the greens. The numbers were very even and everything depended on a handful of undecided, who immediately went from five to four: a senator predicted that he would vote for abortion after a minimum of adjustments to the text of the law. Hours later, two senators and two senators also announced their positive vote and raised the affirmative vote to 38, compared to 32 negative votes. The opponents, moreover, had lost two votes before leaving: that of senator and former president Carlos Menem, 90, in a coma induced by a kidney complication; and that of former governor José Alperovich, on leave until December 31 for reporting sexual abuse.
The triumph of the “yes” to the law was soon defined, even before midnight, when there were still four hours of speeches left. “When I was born, women didn’t vote, we didn’t inherit, we couldn’t go to college. We couldn’t get divorced, the housewives didn’t have a pension. When I was born, women were nobody. I feel emotion for the struggle of all the women out there now. For everyone, let it be law ”, declared Senator Silvia Sapag during the debate, in a summary of the tone of the green speeches.
“We want it to be the law so that no more women can die from illegal abortions. By María Campos. By Liliana. By Elizabeth. By Rupercia. By Paulina. By Rosario. For more than 3,000 women who have died from clandestine abortions since the return of democracy, “said Jimena López, 27, outside with a sign that read” Legal abortion is social justice. ” Among those who opposed the law, many criticized the moment of the debate, in the midst of the 19 covid pandemic, and others cited religious arguments, such as María Belén Tapia: “God’s eyes look at every heart in this place. Blessing if we value life, curse if we choose to kill innocents. I do not say that, it says the Bible that I swore.
In the northern provinces of the country, the ones most influenced by the Catholic Church and evangelical groups, most legislators opposed it. In the Argentine capital and in the province of Buenos Aires, on the other hand, almost all the representatives supported legalization, whatever the party.
For 99 years, in Argentina it was legal to interrupt a pregnancy in case of rape or risk to the life or health of the mother, as in Brazil (which also authorizes abortion in case of anencephaly). In all other cases, it was a crime punishable by imprisonment. Still, criminalization was not an impediment: according to unofficial estimates, around half a million women have clandestine abortions each year. In 2018, 38 women died from medical complications from unsafe abortions. Around 39,000 had to be hospitalized for the same cause.
“Forcing a woman to maintain her pregnancy is a violation of human rights,” said government senator Ana Claudia Almirón, from the province of Corrientes, in the north of the country. “Without the implementation of a comprehensive sexual education, without the provision of contraceptives and without a protocol for the legal interruption of pregnancy, girls correntinas They are forced to give birth at 10, 11 and 12 years, ”Almirón denounced.
“In 2018 we did not reach the law, but we did become aware of a problem: today there are women who abort in precarious and unhealthy conditions,” says Mariángeles Guerrero, a member of the National Campaign for the Right to Safe, Free and Legal Abortion. “Abortion is no longer a taboo subject that is spoken in a low voice and it has become an issue that had to be debated politically to guarantee safe conditions for these abortions,” he adds. In 1921, when the current law was passed, Argentina was at the regional forefront of women’s rights, but the lack of a subsequent debate caused it to lose the dispute. Now the country has regained lost ground.
