A bill was passed that legalizes abortion in the pope’s native Argentina

The Senate of Argentina passed a law legalizing abortion The homeland of Pope Francis early Wednesday after a 12-hour marathon session, a victory for the women’s movement that has been fighting for the right for decades. Voting means that abortion will be legalized until the 14th week of pregnancy, and will also be legal after that time in cases of rape or danger to the mother’s life. It will have repercussions on a continent where the procedure is largely illegal.

The measure was approved with 38 votes in favor, 29 against and one abstention, after a session that began on Tuesday afternoon.

It was already approved by the Argentine Chamber of Deputies and has the support of President Alberto Fernández, so the Senate vote was its final obstacle.

“Safe, legal and free abortion is now the law,” Fernandez tweeted after the vote, noting that it had been an election promise.

“Today we are a better society that expands women’s rights and guarantees public health,” she added.

Argentina is the largest Latin American country that legalized abortion and voting was being closely monitored. With the exceptions of Uruguay, Cuba, Mexico City, the state of Oaxaca in Mexico, the Antilles and French Guiana, abortion remains illegal throughout the region.

Outside the Senate, pro-abortion and anti-abortion rights activists met with supporters of the bill who wore the green color representing their abortion rights movement. Sponsors waved green flags while Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who chaired the debate, announced the result calling for “legal abortion in the hospital” as the measure was passed.

So far, Argentina has penalized women and those who help them have abortions. The only exceptions were cases of rape or a risk to the mother’s health, and activists complain that even these exceptions are not respected in some provinces.

A few hours before the start of the Senate session on Tuesday, the pope spoke in a tweet: “The Son of God was born an outcast, to tell us that every outcast is a child of God. He came into the world as he enters every child in the world, weak and vulnerable, so that we can learn to accept our weaknesses with tender love. “

Argentine lawmakers rejected a previous bill on abortion in 2018, but this time it was backed by the center-left government. However, the result of the last vote had still been considered uncertain. This was due in part to the fact that political parties, including the ruling Peronist movement, gave their legislators the freedom to vote according to whatever they chose. Two of the 72 senators were absent and 43 of the remaining 70 senators were men.

The Argentine feminist movement has been demanding legal abortion for more than 30 years, and activists say the passage of the bill could mark a basin in Latin America, where the influence of the Roman Catholic Church has dominated for a long time. of time.

“Our country is a country of many contradictions,” said Ester Albarello, a psychiatrist with a network of health professionals who support the bill, which was among protesters outside the Congress building. “He is the only one in the world who brought to justice the members of his genocidal military dictatorship with all the guarantees. But we still don’t have legal abortion. Why? Because the church is together with the state.”

Also outside the legislature, a group calling its members “defenders of both lives” installed an altar with a crucifix under a blue tent.

Opponents of the bill, separated by a barrier from its sponsors, were desperately watching as the vote unfolded.

“These politicians do not represent the majority,” said opponent Luciana Prat, an Argentine flag that covered her shoulders. “In every poll, people are against it.”

Supporters said the bill seeks to eradicate clandestine abortions that have caused more than 3,000 deaths in the country since 1983, according to authorities.

In addition to allowing abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, the legislation will also stipulate that even after this period, a pregnancy can be legally terminated if it was the result of a rape or if life or the integral health of the person was in danger.

It will allow the denial of conscience to participate in an abortion for health professionals and private medical institutions in which all doctors are against the procedure. But they will have to refer the woman to another medical center. Nor can conscientious objection be claimed if the life or health of the pregnant woman was in danger.