Buenos Aires:
Argentina Wednesday became a single of only a handful of South American nations to legalize abortion, soon after hours of debate in the Senate.
Hundreds of thousands of illegal abortions are carried out every single year in the nation of 44 million, and pro-selection campaigners have lengthy-urged authorities to place an finish to risky backstreet terminations by legalizing the method.
“It becomes law,” mentioned Senate president Cristina Kirchner, soon after more than twelve hours of debate.
Thousands of pro-selection activists cheered in the streets of the capital soon after the bill was authorized 38 to 29, with a single abstention.
It legalizes voluntary abortions at any stage up to 14 weeks of pregnancy.
Ahead of the vote, pro-selection and anti-abortion demonstrators had gathered outdoors parliament in spite of coronavirus fears.
“This fight was born in the streets,” Silvia Saravia, a pro-selection activist, told AFP.
The vote overturns a related a single in 2018 which, while also passed the reduce home, in the end foundered in the Senate by 38 votes to 31.
South America has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the planet. In Argentina, terminations have been permitted in only two situations: rape, and danger to the mother’s life.
“Legislate for everyone”
The bill was proposed by President Alberto Fernandez and passed the Chamber of Deputies on December 11, in spite of fierce opposition from the Catholic Church and evangelical Christians.
“I’m Catholic but I have to legislate for everyone. Every year around 38,000 women are taken to hospital due to (clandestine) abortions and since the restoration of democracy (in 1983) more than 3,000 have died,” mentioned Fernandez.
“The interruption of a pregnancy is a tragedy. It abruptly ends another developing life,” mentioned Ines Blas, a senator from the ruling coalition.
However, Senator Silvina Garcia Larraburu, once again from the ruling coalition, mentioned she would vote for the bill this time in spite of voting against it in 2018.
Love for all young children
Despite measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, thousands demonstrated in front of parliament, following the debate on giant screens.
Pro-selection activists have campaigned for years to transform the abortion laws that date from 1921, adopting a green scarf as their symbol.
Anti-abortion activists had not too long ago began wearing light blue scarves.
“I know that in the heart of every senator there is love for their children, their grandchildren, and above all a hope that children give us,” mentioned anti-abortion protester Karina Muzaquio.
Outside Congress, anti-abortion demonstrators raised crucifixes, prayed and set up displays that simulated tombs, about a giant graphic image of a infant stained with blood.
Across the plaza, pro-selection protesters held indicators that reading: “We will never go underground again.”
Earlier Wednesday Pope Francis, who is Argentine, tweeted: “The son of God was born discarded to tell us that every person discarded is a child of God.”
While not explicitly mentioning the vote, his comment was interpreted by a lot of as encouraging the senators to vote against the bill.
Such modifications have generally been slow in Argentina: divorce was legalized only in 1987, sex education introduced in 2006, gay marriage authorized in 2010 and a gender identity law passed in 2012.
In Latin America, abortion is only legal in Cuba, Uruguay and Guyana, as properly as Mexico City.
In El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, it is banned, and females can be sentenced to jail even for getting a miscarriage.
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