At the entrance to Congress, a plaque reminds parliamentarians that the Virgin of Luján is the patron saint of Argentine political parties. In the country of Pope Francis, about to vote on the legalization of abortion, the Church is exerting all its strength.
With an average sanction received by the Chamber of Deputies on December 11, the Senate must vote this Tuesday a law for the voluntary termination of pregnancy until the 14th week of gestation. The pros and cons are even. Two years ago, a similar initiative failed by the majority opposition of senators, amid an intense campaign by the Catholic and Evangelical Churches.
In recent days, the two congregations have redoubled their commitment with various rallies and marches across the country.
mutual support
The Argentine Constitution guarantees freedom of worship. A 1994 reform removed the requirement to belong to Catholicism to serve as President of the Republic. However, he maintained in his preamble the invocation to God, as well as the second article, which ensures government support for the Catholic religion.
“The Catholic Church in Argentina has a great capillarity. There is a very strong Catholic culture in the political world, “sociologist Fortunato Mallimaci, author of The Myth of Secular Argentina, told AFP. Catholicism, Politics and the State “.
“Religious groups go in search of state support and the state, when it feels weak, seeks support in religious groups. The weight of the Catholic Church today is more political than religious“, underlines Mallimaci.
The constitutional provision translates into the practice in which the Argentine state pays a salary to the bishops and subsidizes Catholic education, which covers 36% of education in the country, According to this specialist.
Mallimaci points out, however, that since the return of democracy in 1983, Catholicism has lost influence, while “the evangelical world is growing a lot.”
According to a 2019 survey on religious beliefs conducted by the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (Conicet), 62.9% of Argentines declare themselves Catholic, 18.9% without religion and 15.3% evangelical.
In this last democratic period, divorce was approved (1987). Then came a comprehensive sex education law (2006), one for equal marriage (2010), and one on gender identity (2012).
The Church and abortion
In Argentina abortion is allowed in case of rape or risk of life for women since 1921, when the radical (Social Democrat) president Hippolytus Yrigoyen ruled. If the current bill is passed, termination of pregnancy will be free until week 14 of gestation.
“There is a very strong opposition and rejection of the Catholic Church, which is playing hard” to prevent the passage of the law, constitutionalist lawyer Alfonso Santiago told AFP.
But if approved, this expert rules out a rupture in the dialogue between the Church and the center-left government Alberto Fernández, promoter of the law and who is proud of its good relationship with the Pope, former bishop of Buenos Aires.
“I don’t think there will be a cut in collaboration on other issues. It didn’t happen before, when equal marriage was approved,” Santiago said.
Although more than once Pope Francis has equated abortion with hiring a hitman, during this parliamentary debate in Argentina he has been silent for the time being.
“It is a law that does not oblige. The problem that arises in the Catholic Church if abortion is legalized is that it will remain in it, and not in the state, to make its faithful comply with a ban that only it will be religious, “Mallimaci explains.
A 2020 Conicet poll found that 22.3% of Catholics in Argentina think that women should be entitled to abortion if they so decide, 55.7% believe that abortion should be allowed only in certain circumstances and 17.2% reject it in all cases.
evangelical mobilization
Evangelical organizations have led since 2018 mass demonstrations of opponents of the legalization of abortion.
“They have the impetus of the reborn. The celestial manifestations [contra el aborto, por el color del pañuelo con el que se identifican, Ndlr] they are led by them, Catholics do not mobilize in this way, “Mallimaci points out.
Despite their steady growth, evangelical churches in Argentina “do not have the same political strength as in other countries, such as Brazil where they have a parliamentary bloc,” Santiago notes.
“It’s a very dispersed structure, with a lot of diversity, but with a great ability to mobilize its people,” he points out.
The next opportunity to demonstrate will be this Tuesday, on the outskirts of Congress, where feminist activists from the green handkerchief will also gather., For a parliamentary day in which both sectors hold their breath and neither dares to anticipate a result.