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Free and safe abortion. Argentina collects a historic law and women reach a milestone of civilization. With 38 votes in favor, 29 against and one abstention, the Senate approves the reform bill that allows the interruption of pregnancy up to 14 weeks. Thus, the controversial law in force since 1921 that considered it a crime, with two exceptions: sexual violence and the risk of life for the mother, is buried. The news, uncertain and eagerly awaited, is received with a roar of shouts, songs, dances, slogans and an avalanche of green handkerchiefs waved by thousands of women and men, who for more than 24 hours have been standing in the northern part of Square. look in front of Parliament.
Pioneer of many other battles and principles of civilization achieved such as homosexual marriage and gender recognition, the great South American country struggled to legally recognize abortion. He considered it a real taboo that not even Cristina Kirchner, woman and president of progressive ideas, had managed to break. Only her daughter Florence, an activist, had convinced her in recent months. The weight of the conservative front and the influences of the Church against liberalization continued to dominate, despite the presence in Rome of an Argentine pope who in recent years has repeatedly demonstrated his openness to the great issues of social and civil rights.
With the new law, Argentina stands out at the top of the small list of Latin American countries that allow women to decide about their body and whether or not they want to be mothers. Uruguay, Cuba, Guyana and the state of Mexico City have already done so. In the others, the restrictions and conditions are maintained. In some, such as Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Salvador, it is prohibited in any case and the simple suspicion of having voluntarily interrupted a pregnancy is punishable by a penalty of up to 30 years in prison. There are dozens of women, often girls, in prison because they aborted after being raped by a relative or simply because they lost their fetus, but the courts have accused them of provoking it.
But with the arrival of Alberto Fernandez, linked to the Pontiff with whom he shares many positions, things have changed. The president had been committed since the electoral campaign to the issue of abortion and when he was elected he reiterated it. It was he who urged the deputies of his party to present a new bill that was later approved in the Chamber. The stumbling block of the Senate remained, more conservative. Here the confrontation was more bitter and the outcome uncertain. Dramatic tones have been used in the debate. “God’s eyes are looking at every heart in this chamber,” he thundered. Maria Belen Tapia. “They present us with an option that will mark the future of our country. We will be blessed if we value life, we will be cursed if we authorize the killing of innocent people. I’m not saying it, the Bible that I have sworn to says so ”.
Another deputy who led the yes front answered. “When we were born, we couldn’t vote, we didn’t inherit, we couldn’t study at university. When I was born, women were nothing. I feel a lot of emotion for the struggle that all those women out there are leading ”. And it was her, the senator Silvia Sapag, when there were still four hours of debate left, to mark the turning point. “For everyone,” he concluded, “that this bill becomes law.”
At the beginning of the session, there were 33 votes in favor and 32 against. Five who still abstained. Sixteen hours of confrontation has greatly changed the balance. Three of the five insecure said their yes, three of the were not absent for serious health reasons. The final verdict was also a surprise due to the difference in votes. Outside, the blue tide of the movement for life has despaired with songs and arms raised to the sky along with crucifixes and Bibles clutched in hands. On the opposite side a party started that lasted for hours.
Argentina enters fully into the Olympus of the most advanced countries in social rights. But above all, it breaks that chain of deaths between women who had a clandestine abortion and the desperate women who had to go to hospitals due to the consequences of an operation carried out in secret and in precarious conditions. This year alone, 38 girls have been victims of this barbarity and 39,000 have been hospitalized. Many others, in silence, had made their way to private clinics. To abort it was enough to have money.
