BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) – Argentina’s revolutionary abortion law comes into force on Sunday under the watchful eye of women’s groups and government officials, who hope to ensure its full implementation despite opposition from some conservative groups and ecclesiastics.
Argentina became the largest nation in Latin America to legalize elective abortion after its Senate passed a law on December 30 that would guarantee the procedure until the 14th week of pregnancy and beyond in cases of rape or when a woman’s health is at risk.
The vote was hailed as a triumph for the feminist movement in the South American country that could pave the way for similar actions throughout the socially conservative and heavily Catholic Roman region.
But Pope Francis had filed a last-minute appeal before the vote and church leaders have criticized the decision. Proponents of the law say they expect lawsuits from anti-abortion groups in Argentina’s conservative provinces and that some private health clinics may refuse to carry out the procedure.
“Another huge task lies ahead of us,” said Argentine Minister for Women, Gender and Diversity Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta, who has acknowledged that there will be obstacles to the full implementation of the law across the country.
Gómez Alcorta said a telephone line will be created “so that those who cannot access abortion can communicate.”
The Argentine Catholic Church has repudiated the law and conservative groups of doctors and lawyers have urged resistance. Doctors and health professionals can claim conscientious objection to abortion, but they cannot invoke the right if the life or health of a pregnant woman is in danger.
A statement signed by the Consortium of Catholic Physicians, the Catholic Bar Association and other groups called on doctors and lawyers to “resist with nobility, firmness and courage the rule that legalizes the abominable crime of abortion.”
The anti-abortion group Unidad Provida also urged doctors, nurses and technicians to fight for their “freedom of conscience” and pledged to “accompany them in all necessary trials.”
By law, private health centers that do not have doctors willing to perform abortions must refer women seeking abortion to clinics that do. Any public official or health authority who unjustifiably delays an abortion will be punished with imprisonment from three months to one year.
The National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe and Free Abortion, an umbrella group for organizations that for years fought for legal abortion, often with green handkerchiefs in protests, pledged to “continue to monitor compliance with the law “.
“We rely on the feminist networks we have built for decades,” said Laura Salomé, one of the movement’s members.
Argentine lawmakers rejected a previous bill on abortion in 2018 by a narrow margin. But the December vote was backed by the center-left government, driven by the so-called “piba” revolution, from Argentine “girls” slang, and opinion polls showing opposition s’ they had softened.
Supporters of the law expect reactions in Argentine conservative provinces. In the northern province of Salta, a federal judge this week rejected a measure filed by a former lawmaker calling for the law to be suspended because the legislature had exceeded its powers. Opponents of abortion cite international treaties signed by Argentina that pledge to protect the life of conception.
Gomez Alcorta said the pending criminal charges of more than 1,500 women and doctors who performed abortions should be lifted. He said the number of women and doctors detained “was not that large,” but did not provide any.
“The Women’s Ministry will exercise its leadership” to end these cases, she said.
Tamara Grinberg, 32, who had a clandestine abortion in 2012, celebrated that from now on “a girl can go to a hospital to tell her I want to have an abortion.”
She said that when she had an abortion, very few people helped her. “Today there are many more support networks … and the decision is respected. When I did, no one respected my decision. “
Although abortion is already allowed in some other parts of Latin America (such as Uruguay, Cuba and Mexico City), its legalization in Argentina is expected to have an impact throughout the region, where dangerous clandestine procedures remain the norm half a century after women’s right to election was guaranteed in the US
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AP journalists Víctor Caivano and Yésica Brumec contributed to this report.