Argentina could become in the coming hours the first major country in Latin America and the Caribbean to legalize abortion. After a positive vote in the Chamber of Deputies on December 11, the Senate must examine, from Tuesday afternoon, December 29, a bill presented by the executive decriminalizing and legalizing voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion). The vote is expected at dawn on Wednesday.
Despite fears of a new wave of Covid-19, thousands of people were starting to head to Congress early Tuesday morning for a vigil that is expected to last all night. The verdes (“Green”, the color of the right to abortion) and the celestial (“Sky blue”, the color of anti-abortion) will be separated by high barriers to prevent any conflict.
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What does the current law on abortion say?
Since 1921, abortion has been considered a crime under the Argentine penal code. A woman who aborts faces one to four years in prison, and anyone who helps her faces up to six years in prison.
However, article 86 allows abortion in two situations:
- when the health or life of the pregnant woman is in danger;
- in case of rape.
However, the law is difficult to enforce and most abortions – between 370,000 and 522,000 per year, according to a 2005 health ministry study – are carried out illegally. Since the discussions around a first bill in 2018, more and more women nevertheless have access to “legal” terminations of pregnancy (those permitted by current law), information circulating more and women being more at home. made of their rights.
What does this bill say?
The bill provides for all women and “pregnant people” (the bill takes into account trans men) over 16 years of age the possibility of abortion on simple request until the fourteenth week of pregnancy. It also allows therapeutic abortions until the end of pregnancy in case of danger to the health of the pregnant person and in case of rape.
He specifies that abortion (whether performed by medication or by surgical operation) must take place within a maximum of ten days after the pregnant person has requested it. The practice must be included in the compulsory medical program, the book of free services that all health establishments, public or private, must provide.
But the text allows conscientious objection from doctors and institutions, that is to say that a health establishment can declare itself an “objector” as a whole. In this case, he will have the obligation to refer the patient to another establishment.
People under 13 must be accompanied by at least one of their parents or guardian. Between 13 and 16 years old, abortion will be possible under an article of the civil code which stipulates that minors who have “Sufficient age and maturity can exercise only the acts permitted by law”, but in a situation of conflict with its legal representatives, they can be assisted by legal aid.
What is the difference with the project debated in 2018?
In 2018, a similar bill was approved by deputies on June 14, but rejected by the Senate on August 9. This text was the result of a collective, the National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe and Free Abortion, which brings together some 700 organizations.
This year the bill was drafted by the executive branch directly. It was signed by the president, Alberto Fernandez, three of his ministers (for health, justice and women) and by his chief of staff.
Mr. Fernandez had made it a campaign promise. This lawyer by profession is the first head of state in the country to declare himself openly in favor of the legalization of abortion.
If the text of the executive is largely inspired by that presented by the collective, two major modifications have been made: first, the Campaign project did not provide for conscientious objection, as is underlines within the organization:
“In terms of sexual and reproductive rights, it is an obstacle for women’s rights, we know what happens in countries where conscientious objection is allowed: women have all the difficulties in the world to have access to abortion. “
In addition, the 2018 draft gave a period of five days – instead of ten for the executive – between the request of the pregnant person and the practice of abortion.
Why is the project more likely this time to succeed than in 2018?
The fact that the bill was introduced by the executive, and not by a collective of civil society organizations, gives it more weight in Congress.
In 2018, the text of the Campaign was rejected in the Senate with 38 votes against, 31 for and 2 abstentions. This year, the balance would tip slightly in favor of the bill. The latest estimates give a very close result, at 34 votes in favor and 33 against. Four senators had not publicly defined their vote on Tuesday.
The subject of the right to abortion does not really follow partisan lines and all the senators of the center-left majority are not in favor. It is with them that the executive has embarked, in recent days, in a veritable marathon of negotiations to convince them to vote for the text.
Alberto Fernandez needs this symbolic victory after a year marked by the epidemic due to the coronavirus, which has claimed nearly 43,000 lives and caused a devastating economic crisis, while the president inherited, in December 2019, a country already ravaged by poverty after four years of management by Mauricio Macri.
Why would a positive vote be historic?
In the Latin American subcontinent, 97% of women of childbearing age live in countries with restrictive abortion laws, according to the American Guttmacher Institute. Free recourse to abortion is only possible in three countries: Cuba (since 1965), Guyana (since 2006) and Uruguay (since 2012). Abortion has also been legalized in Mexico City (since 2007) and in the Mexican state of Oaxaca (2019).
Six countries ban it completely, even though pregnancy poses a fatal risk to the woman. Five are located in Central America and the Caribbean: Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. And one, Suriname, in South America.
Everywhere else, abortion is penalized and allowed only under certain conditions. But, again, most of the time, these conditions are not respected and the practice of abortion, however massive, remains clandestine and therefore dangerous.
