Letter of…Already adopted by deputies, the government’s bill is due to be considered in the Senate on December 29. Opponents, supported by the Catholic and Evangelical Churches, keep the pressure on the still undecided senators.
LETTER FROM BUENOS AIRES
Far from giving pride of place to the end-of-year festivities, the months of Argentina in December are renowned for being rich in news and conflict. This year is no exception: tension is mounting in the country, a few days before a crucial vote on the legalization of voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion). On December 29, senators are due to consider the government bill already passed by deputies on December 11.
Two years after the rejection in the Senate of a bill on the legalization of abortion, the scenario is now also uncertain in the upper chamber. If feminist activists hope to finally see abortion legalized in the country, anti-abortion activists also remain particularly mobilized for “Defend the two lives” (according to them, that of the pregnant woman and that of the fetus).
“I leave it to God”, says Maria Falcon, 63, Argentina. A member of an evangelical church in the capital, this mother of five demonstrated in front of Congress on December 10, during some of the twenty hours of debate that preceded the vote of the deputies. “We will not give up. Whether the law is passed or not, we will always continue to defend life, which begins at conception ”, she argues. Armed with sky blue scarves and sometimes Argentinian flags, anti-abortion activists have marched on several occasions in recent weeks in hundreds of cities across the country.
18% of Argentines against abortion, even in case of rape
Less visible in the public space than the defenders of the right to abortion – many, in the streets of Buenos Aires, to wear, tied to their bag, a green scarf, symbol of the fight for the right to abortion – , the anti-choice however represents the majority opinion: according to a survey of the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (Conicet), only 27% of Argentines believe that a woman should be able to access an abortion without conditions.
As a result of the debate opened in 2018 and the freedom to speak out within society, this figure has increased considerably since 2008, when barely 14% of respondents voted for the right to abortion. Half of Argentines today say they are in favor of the right to abortion under certain conditions (in the event of rape, or if the pregnancy presents a danger to the health of the pregnant woman, exceptions currently provided for by law). Finally, 18% say they are against abortion in all cases.
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