Buenos Aires – Argentine lawmakers on Friday took a big step toward legalizing abortion and fulfilling a promise made by President Alberto Fernandez, who has made women’s rights a central part of his government.
The approval of the bill by 131 to 117 votes in Argentina’s lower house of Congress, after more than 20 hours of debate, was a legislative victory for Mr. Fernandez, who has dedicated funds and political capital to improving the situation for women and gay and transgender people. , As Argentina wrestles with the biggest economic crisis of the pay generation. The bill would still need to pass the Senate to legalize abortion in the country.
“It’s one thing to say another thing, it’s another misconception,” said Elizabeth Gomez Alcorta, Argentina’s minister for women, gender and diversity. “It doesn’t look like you should stop reconsidering debt to pursue these policies.”
Argentina will become only the fourth nation to legalize abortion in Latin America, where strict abortion law is the norm and Catholic education has long pursued the policy.
Thousands of activists from both the parties surrounded the Congress from Thursday night to Friday morning following a wide-ranging discussion on the issue.
Based on their status they were clearly divided into designated areas. On the one hand, abortion rights activists turned their area into an open air party, dancing during many summer nights.
“I have swan stripes,” the 22-year-old psychology student, who stayed up all night, said after the vote. “I think we’re making history.”
The second, especially the smaller group, opposed the legalization, praying in the open air all night, although most believe the bill is likely to pass like an early morning light in the sky.
“I am deeply saddened,” said Paloma Guevara, a 24-year-old nutritionist who rallied with anti-abortion activists all night. “Our hope is the Senate now, and the good thing is, we’re more prepared than we were two years ago.”
Mr. Fernandez, a professor at the center’s left law school, runs the campaign as a champion of marginalized communities, at odds with his wealthy, center-right predecessor, Mauricio Mac Mac Curry. He kept gender and gender inequalities in line with social, economic and racial inequalities and promised to address them.
But he took office a year ago during the deep recession, and the coronavirus epidemic fell just three months after Argentina was sworn in. The country imposed one of the longest and harshest lockdowns in the world, but even then the virus spread, and left it in the nations. The highest per capita mortality rate
Despite these difficulties, Mr. Fernandez, 61, prioritized gender and sexual orientation in his government, surprisingly some activists also joined his initiative.
Earlier this year, the government created a quota system that kept at least one percent of the federal public sector jobs for transgender Argentina.
“It really was a surprise to all of us,” said Marianne Letieri, an English teacher who heads an organization that helps fellow transgender people find jobs. “I hope one day we don’t need quotas, but now we need them.”
Mr. Fernandez’s 2021 budget identifies more than 15 percent of the estimated cost of moving toward sexuality initiatives that include funding for violence prevention programs, bringing women who are not part of the formal labor force into the pension system, and fighting human trafficking.
Mr Fernandez has also told his team to avoid scheduled meetings that involve only straight men. As of August Gust, any audience of more than four people with the President should include women or members of the LGBTQ community, one-third of the participants.
Emphasis can be placed on making Argentina more justified as the nation sinks into inflation, rising poverty and crushing debt, as some may disrupt. Some critics, such as former Secretary of Defense Patricia Bulrich, have now argued that “at least, this is not the right time to discuss divisive issues, such as abortion.”
“I will work more on the economy and the realities of the people,” he told CNN Radio Argentina. “I would have had other priorities.”
But government officials say they see investments to make Argentina a better country as part of a path to a more prosperous future.
“More equality and access to opportunities is part of the vision we are pursuing in this government,” said Martin Guzm પ્રધાનn, the economy minister.
The abortion bill, which makes it legal to terminate a pregnancy up to 14 weeks, is the most profile and the most divisive part of that plan.
In Argentina, abortion is now allowed only in cases of rape if the pregnancy poses a risk to the mother’s health. In practice, however, doctors, especially in rural areas, often feel reluctant to practice legal abortion for fear of legal resistance.
At least 65 women died between 2016 and 2018 due to abortion complications, according to a report by Argentina’s Access to Safe Abortion Network. In the same period, 7,262 girls between the ages of 10 and 14 gave birth.
Argentina came close to legalizing abortion in 2018, despite strong opposition from churches and Pope Francis. Mr. Mac Kari, who was president at the time, said he opposes the move, but urges fellow legislators to vote for their end cons.
Drawing sharp contradictions with his predecessor, Mr. Fernandez introduced a bill to Congress last month wearing a green tie, the color that has come to represent efforts to legalize abortion.
“I am convinced that it is the responsibility of the state to take care of the lives and health of those who decide to interrupt their pregnancy.” Mr. Fernandez stated in a video Posted on Twitter.
In doing so, he fulfilled a campaign promise that some reproductive rights officials feared would be lost between the coronavirus and the heavy toll caused by the economic crisis in Argentina. The bill was unveiled as Mr Fernandez’s team struggled to reconsider renewing a debt of સાથે 44 billion with the International Monetary Fund and reopening a paralyzed economy.
Political analysts approved the abortion bill in the lower house of Argentina’s congress, where most legislators clarified their position just before the debate began as a deal. The biggest hurdle for abortion-rights activists will be in the Senate, where the move failed in 2011 after strong opposition from senators in rural areas, where the Roman Catholic and Evangelical Churches dominate.
Despite the losses, the massive mobilization ahead of the 2018 vote, especially by young women, galvanized a new pay generation of feminists in Argentina, who have taken to the streets in large numbers to campaign for legal abortion and wider representation.
Legalizing abortion would fulfill one of the movement’s main demands, and hand over to Mr. Fernandez his biggest legal victory, advancing a national project that has already begun to shape Argentina.
According to the United Nations Development Program’s database, the epidemic puts women in particularly dire straits, making them the majority in the new unemployed, leading Argentina as a country taking gender-sensitive measures to respond to the crisis. .
“In Argentina, the epidemic has fully exposed the inequality between men and women,” said Mercedes D’Alessandro, who heads the Department of Equality and Gender in the Ministry of Economy. “Even with such a contrasting context, this agenda is moving forward.”
Argentina’s growing focus on gender equality comes at a time when other countries in the region are also ensuring women’s voices in government decisions.
In neighboring Chile, for example, voters approved a referendum on a draft of a new constitution in November, which also required gender equality among delegates at the constitutional convention. The charter written by the same number of men and women would make the country the first in the world.
Yet some of the measures are likely to have such a regional impact if Argentina joins Cuba, Uruguay and Guyana in legalizing abortion.
