The Argentine Congress adopted the law legalizing abortion on Wednesday, December 30, after a vote by senators in favor of the text, after more than twelve hours of debate, announced the president of the Senate, Cristina Kirchner.
Already approved by the deputies on December 11, the text which authorizes the voluntary termination of pregnancy up to 14 weeks was adopted with 38 votes for, 29 against and one abstention, while thousands of supporters of the “yes” demonstrated their joy in front of the Senate at the end of the vote.
“It has become a law”
“It has become a law and it now passes into the hands of the executive,” welcomed the President of the Senate and former Head of State Cristina Kirchner, after a Homeric debate of more than twelve o’clock.
“After so many attempts and years of struggle that spilled blood and cost us lives, today we have finally made history. Today, we are leaving a better world for our children ”, launched to Agence France-Presse Sandra Lujan, a 41-year-old psychologist, who participated in the vigil organized by supporters of abortion, recognizable by their color. green.
Until now, abortion was only allowed in Argentina in cases of rape or danger to the life of the mother, according to a law dating from 1921.
A conservative Senate
While the deputies had adopted the text by 131 votes for, 117 against and 6 abstentions, the vote of the Senate, deemed more conservative, seemed far from certain. In 2018, he rejected by seven votes a similar text in a country still very Catholic and deeply divided on the issue.
“This law does not oblige to abort, it does not promote abortion, it only gives it a legal framework”, declared during the debates the senator member of the majority Sergio Leavy.
Center-left president Alberto Fernandez, in power since the end of 2018, had promised during his campaign to resubmit the legalization of abortion to parliamentarians. “I am a Catholic, but I must legislate for everyone, it is a very serious public health issue”, recently argued the Head of State. But all the senators of his majority are not in favor of the text.
Hundreds of thousands of illegal abortions
According to the government, between 370,000 and 520,000 clandestine abortions are performed each year in the country of 44 million inhabitants, where 38,000 women are hospitalized for complications from clandestine abortions. In an attempt to convince the senators to vote for the text, it included the possibility for doctors to assert their “conscientious objection”.
At the same time, another bill creates a “1,000 days” allowance intended to support mothers during their pregnancy and the first years of the child in order to reduce abortions for economic reasons. With this text, Argentina joins Cuba, Uruguay, Guyana and the province of Mexico, the only ones to authorize abortion without condition in Latin America.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro deplored this legalization on Wednesday, declaring that “the lives of Argentinian children” could now be “mowed down” with “the consent of the state”. “I am deeply sorry for the Argentinian children, whose lives can now be mowed down in their mother’s womb with the consent of the state,” wrote on Twitter the far-right leader, who enjoys the support of the Evangelical Churches Neo-Pentecostals, who are fierce opponents of the legalization of abortion. “As long as it is up to me or my government, abortion will never be allowed on our soil. We will always fight to protect the lives of the innocent, ”he added.
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