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Senate of Argentina approved in the early hours of this Wednesday a project that allows free access to abortion until the 14th week of gestation, which was promoted by the Government of Alberto Fernández and was a historic claim of feminist groups.
(You may be interested: A polarized Senate decides whether to legalize abortion in Argentina)
The text, which had already been approved by the Deputies on December 11, received the votes in favor of 38 senators, 29 against and one abstention, after a 12-hour session and during which thousands of people, in favor or Against the law, they concentrated on the outskirts of Congress waiting for the result.
The project represents a strong change with respect to the current situation – in which legal abortion is only allowed if the woman suffered a rape or is in danger of her life – and authorizes the conscientious objection of physicians who do not want to participate in abortion, but always to quickly refer patients to other professionals to do so.
So the day passed
“Today is a day of hope, we are going to begin to debate a project that will prevent more unjust deaths”said Norma Durango, senator of the Frente de Todos (official), the first to speak.
The session, which takes place with some congressmen present in the room and others participating remotely, began at 4 pm (local time) with the attendance of 67 senators, out of a total of 72 seats. There are 58 registered speakers and it is estimated that the vote will take place at dawn.
Thousands of demonstrators in favor and against the proposal occupied the streets surrounding the Congress, with posters and flags, on a hot day in the southern summer. “Today we are very anxious, we are very confident that it is indeed law, now, If that does not happen, we will continue in the streets, because this struggle was born in the streets and it will continue in the streets. “said Silvia Saravia, a pro-abortion activist.
(Also read: What is the climate in Argentina after a new step towards legal abortion?)
Today we are very anxious, we are very confident that it is indeed law (…)
A bill to legalize it was rejected in August 2018 by the Senate, by 38 votes against, 31 in favor and two abstentions.
However, this time the forces are more even and no one dares to anticipate the result. If the ‘yes’ wins, Argentina will join Uruguay and Cuba, the only countries where abortion is legal in Latin America. It is also authorized in Mexico City.
The positions towards the project
The ruling Frente de Todos (FdT) alliance holds 41 of the 72 seats in the Senate, but not all of its members support the project. The center-right opposition is almost mostly against it, although it has prominent supporters of the project.
Inés Blas, FdT senator for the province of Catamarca (northwest), anticipated her vote against. “The termination of pregnancy is a tragedy. It ends abruptly with another developing life.”
There have already been some changes compared to 2018. Silvina García Larraburu, FdT senator for Río Negro (south), who had voted against the project, said that this time he will vote in favor.
(You may be interested in: Legal abortion and tax on fortunes, controversial proposals by Fernández)
The government estimates that there are between 370,000 and 520,000 clandestine abortions annually in a country of 45 million inhabitants. Since democratic restoration in 1983, there have been more than 3,000 women killed by unsafe abortions.
The opposition to the voluntary interruption of pregnancy, which adopted the blue color, has as its standard bearers the Catholic Church and the Christian Alliance of Evangelical Churches, also promoters of massive street marches.
Pope Francis, the former archbishop of Buenos Aires, published a tweet on Tuesday. “The Son of God was born discarded to tell us that every discarded person is a son of God. He came into the world as a child comes into the world, weak and fragile, so that we can embrace our frailties with tenderness, “said the Supreme Pontiff. It was a message that, despite not being explicit, the press interpreted as rejection of the law.
The Son of God was born discarded to tell us that every discarded person is a child of God. He came into the world as a child comes into the world, weak and fragile, so that we can embrace our frailties with tenderness.
– Pope Francis (@Pontifex_es) December 29, 2020
Undefined votes
The conjectures on the outcome of the session contemplate the absence of two declared senators opposed to the legalization of the IVE.
One of them is on leave after being denounced for sexual harassment and the other, former president Carlos Menem, 90, is seriously hospitalized with heart and kidney ailments.
(You may be interested: Former Argentine President Menem, in an induced coma after suffering kidney failure)
In case of equality, the regulation marks that the holder of the body breaks, Vice President Cristina Kirchner, who declared herself anti-legal until 2018, when she changed her position.
The proposal reaches the Senate after the half-sanction of the deputies, on December 11, reached with 131 positive votes, 117 negative votes and six abstentions.
Protests against abortion in Buenos Aires.
Juan Ignacio Roncoroni. Efe
Revolutionaries or objectors
Until now in Argentina abortion is only allowed in the event of rape or risk of life to the woman, legislation that has been in force since 1921. “The green tide is a feminist revolution in motion and it is intergenerational,” said María Florencia Alcaraz, author of the book ‘What is law!’, In defense of voluntary abortion.
The initiative provides for the conscientious objection of an individual or a health establishment, although the objectors will be obliged to refer the patient to another hospital.
Along with the project for the voluntary interruption of pregnancy, the Senate will also evaluate in this session a complementary proposal of the government, the Plan of 1,000 days, Aimed at providing material and health support to women from vulnerable sectors who wish to become mothers, to prevent economic reasons from inducing an abortion.
AFP
It may interest you:
– ‘Debate on the criminalization of abortion must take place in Congress’
– Human Rights Watch asks the Court to decriminalize abortion in Colombia
– International entities and the Bogotá mayor’s office ask to decriminalize abortion
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