Congress Square in Buenos Aires was tinted again with green, the symbol of the right to abortion, on Wednesday, February 19. Two years to the day after the demonstration that marked the start of an immense mobilization for the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) in Argentina, tens of thousands of activists returned to Parliament demanding "Que sea ley" (make it law).
"Clandestine abortions are one of the main causes of maternal death in Argentina, denounces Julieta de Brito, a 37-year-old general practitioner who came to demonstrate with her 1.5-year-old baby. Moral considerations have no place in this debate over a public health issue. " According to the Ministry of Health, nearly 355,000 women have an illegal abortion every year in Argentina, and around 50 die from it.
"I don't want any more women to die because of an abortion", declared to World President Alberto Fernandez on February 8. Elected at the end of October 2019, he is the first Argentine head of state to vote in favor of the legalization of abortion. A bill prepared by his government will be presented to Congress in the coming weeks – parliamentary sessions are scheduled to begin on 1st March. His predecessor, Liberal Mauricio Macri, was personally against it, but said he would respect Congress’s choice in 2018.
More favorable panorama
That year, after months of debate, the Chamber of Deputies approved a bill legalizing abortion in June, but the text was then rejected – by seven votes – by senators. "It was a very sad moment, testifies Sofia Mora, 19, who had spent the night of August 8 to 9, 2018 before the Congress, awaiting the result of the vote in the Senate. But even if the senators voted against, we felt that the street said something else. Here we are again today, and this time, I feel that the law will pass! "
Half the seats of deputies and a third of those of senators were renewed in the general elections of October 2019. In the Chamber of Deputies, supporters of the right to abortion continue to be in the majority. Among senators, although their number has increased slightly, they remain, for the time being, in the minority.
"What can influence the vote in the Senate is the relationship that Mr. Fernandez has with the governors of the Argentine provinces, analyzes Alba Ruibal, researcher in political science at the National Center for Scientific and Technical Research (Conicet). The president is going to have intense political work to do, but he would not have launched this project if he was not sure that it could be approved. " In the event of a tie, Vice-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (former head of state from 2007 to 2015), who also holds the presidency of the Senate, would rule in favor of legalization.
