In the News: Abortion Law Reform To Be Debated in Argentine Congress

Abortion Debate in Argentina Gains Momentum as Macri Says He Won’t Block It in Congress, The Bubble, 2018-02-23

The Casa Rosada has indicated it will not attempt to block a debate in Congress on proposals to decriminalize and legalize abortions. […]

Abortion is currently illegal and considered a crime in Argentina except in circumstances of a health threat to a woman’s life, cases of pregnancy following rape or sexual abuse of a woman with a mental disability. Lawmakers seeking decriminalization in the coming weeks will table a bill that decriminalizes abortions during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. The reintroduction of the bill, the seventh time it has been submitted to Congress, is necessary as each bill expires after two years if it is not passed into law. […]

According to Argentina’s Health Ministry, between 370,000 and 522,000 abortions are performed annually, most of them considered illegal. […]

ARGENTINA – Macri gives a green light to open the debate on abortion law reform, International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion, 2018-02-23

In 2016, 46 women died from unsafe, illegal abortions in Argentina. All of them could have been avoided. Mauricio Macri, President of Argentina, is against abortion, but all around him there is a very strong movement and a new generation that are pushing for Argentina to become a leader in the region on abortion law reform, as they were with gay marriage. The abortion rights movement in Argentina seeks to go well beyond Chile and calls for a law that allows abortion on request in the first 14 weeks.

In the Congress, where resistance to change and the pressures of the Catholic church still have weight, the pressure is growing every day. Last weekend it exploded in a cheerful and organised manner in front of the Congress building and on social media with the slogan #AbortoLegalYa (Legal abortion already!) that gained the support of many famous politicians and journalists, a senior judge, a TV star and some important members of the Government.

The new law, if adopted, would grant every woman the right to decide voluntarily to terminate a pregnancy during the first 14 weeks of gestation.

See also:

• Interview (in Spanish) with Brenda Austin, one of the authors of the new law: El debate en el Congreso, El aborto es radical, Revista Anfibia, Universidad Nacional de San Martín.