ARGENTINE SENATE APPROVES BILL LEGALIZING ABORTION

Wed 30 December 2020:

Argentina has become the largest Latin American country to legalise abortion, becoming the fourth country in Latin America to legalise abortion.

The bill, which legalises terminations in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, was approved by Argentina’s lower house earlier this month after being put to congress by the country’s leftwing president Alberto Fernández.

The Senate voted by 38 in favour to 29 against with one abstention to approve a bill allowing the procedure through the 14th week of pregnancy, bucking the traditionally strong influence of the Catholic Church in the region.

The contentious vote followed a marathon debate that began at 4pm (19:00 GMT) on Tuesday.

Tens of thousands of people packed into the square around the National Congress for a 12 hour debate, breaking into chants of “legal abortion in the hospital” as the votes were counted.

The vote is the result of a long campaign in a country that remained divided on the issue.

Opponents also gathered outside the Congress, holding a mass and praying for legislators to block the bill.

As the result was read out, a crowd of thousands erupted in cheers outside the Senate building in Buenos Aires, waving the green flags that represented their campaign as green smoke rose above the crowd.

“We did it sisters. We made history. We did it together. There are no words for this moment, it passes through the body and the soul,” tweeted Monica Macha, a politician with President Alberto Fernandez’ centre-left ruling coalition which supported the law.

Pro-choice groups argue that criminalising abortion harms women from the most vulnerable groups who they say are instead often forced to seek dangerous illegal abortions.

Argentina’s powerful Catholic church argues the practice violates the right to life. Argentina is the birthplace of Pope Francis.

The Caribbean island of Cuba legalised the practice in 1965 while Mexico City and the Mexican state of Oaxaca also allow terminations.

Giselle Carino, an Argentinian feminist activist, said she believed the achievement in the home country of Pope Francis would reverberate across a region that is home to powerful Catholic and evangelical churches and some of the harshest abortion laws in the world.

In most countries, such as Brazil, abortions are only permitted in extremely limited circumstances such as rape or risk to the mother’s life, while in some, such as the Dominican Republic and El Salvador, they are banned altogether.