The National Academy of Medicine in Argentina warned that the abortion law passed with the support of the government of Alberto Fernández violates the fundamental principles of the ethics of medicine and the defense of life.
Law 27,610 on abortion was approved by the Congress of the Nation on December 30, 2020 and was published in the Official Gazette on January 14, 2021. The decree that regulates it was published in this official medium last August 15th.
In this context, the National Academy of Medicine stated in a statement that it is its obligation to “alert society, institutions and professionals to resolutions that are contrary to the fundamental principles of medical practice, ethics and the defense of life. “
In its statement, the National Academy of Medicine reiterated “its respect for life from the moment of fertilization,” and criticized that abortion is defined “euphemistically as access to voluntary termination of pregnancy “.
In this incomplete regulation “disregard for ethics, laws, religions, human rights, the value of life and evidence of an attitude contrary to international documents signed by the country is repeated,” the Academy explained.
From medical practice, “the denial of conscientious objection clashes with the beliefs of professionals and their possibility of refusing to perform an aberrant act against their freedom of conscience and their ethical and scientific principles. “, framework given” twenty centuries ago “by the Hippocratic oath the author, Hippocrates, the father of Medicine,” prohibit doctors from performing abortions. “
“The prohibition of conscientious objection includes institutions, despite having in their statutes moral rules that prevent the performance of abortions in their facilities.”
The National Academy of Medicine explained that the abortion law ignores parental authority from the moment “a 14-year-old girl can request an abortion without the knowledge and endorsement of her parents.”
“The entire text of the law and its regulations advocate the establishment of a situation of free abortion in society,” they said.
This statement is in addition to the one already made by the Consortium of Catholic Doctors of Buenos Aires, given the insistence on regulating the abortion law despite the decline in birth rates in the country.
Argentine abortion law
With the law 27,610 women can access abortion until the 14th week of gestation, without establishing any cause.
Outside this period, Article 4 of the law states, without giving further details, that abortion can be accessed when the pregnancy is the product of a rape or “if life or health is in danger of the pregnant person “.
Article 10 of the law states that “the health professional who must intervene directly in the termination of pregnancy has the right to exercise conscientious objection,” but must “derive in good faith. to the patient to be cared for by another professional in a contemporary and timely manner, without delay “.
It also states that “health personnel may not refuse to perform the termination of pregnancy in the event that the life or health of the pregnant woman is in danger and requires immediate and unavoidable care” and “is not he may allege conscientious objection to refusing to provide post-abortion health care. “
Article 11 of the law refers to the objection of institutional conscience and establishes that when a health establishment accepts this right, it has the obligation to refer the pregnant woman to another that does perform the abortion.
In addition, the abortion law incorporates in its article 15 article 85 of the Penal Code which states that “shall be repressed or repressed with imprisonment from three months to one year and special disqualification for twice the time of the sentence, the civil servant or the civil servant or the authority of the health establishment, professional, effector or health personnel who will unjustifiably dilate, obstruct or refuse, in contravention of current regulations, to perform an abortion in legally authorized cases “.