Argentine Senate debates measure to legalise abortion

Argentine Senate debates measure to legalise abortion

The Argentine Senate debated all day on Wednesday over a bill that would legalise elective abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy in the homeland of Pope Francis, setting up a vote that could reverberate around the region.

Argentina’s lower house of Congress already passed the measure, and President Mauricio Macri said he would sign it if approved by the Senate.

The Senate session spilled over into Thursday as the debate stretched past 12 hours. A vote was expected before dawn.

The Senate also could modify the bill and return it to the lower house.

Argentina now allows abortion only in cases of rape or risks to a woman’s health, and activists say 3,000 women have died of illegal abortions since 1983.

Opponents, meanwhile, insist life begins at conception and complain the bill could force doctors to perform the procedure even when they believe it is hazardous.

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Protesters demonstrate in support of loosening the abortion law, left, and against abortion, right, in this photo taken from Congress where politicians are debating the issue in Buenos Aires (Argentine Senate via AP)

Hundreds of doctors have staged anti-abortion protests, in one case laying their white medical coats on the ground outside the presidential palace.

Feminist groups, in turn, have held demonstrations in support of the measure, often wearing green that symbolises their movement or costumes based on author Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.

Many demonstrators braved a heavy rain and the cold of the Argentine winter waiting outside the Congress building.

Daiana Anadon, leader of the feminist group Wave, said she and hundreds of other women would stay “until the final moment because we believe the power of the street will move the situation.”

During the debate, Senator Mario Fiad called abortion a “tragedy and said he opposed the legislation, arguing it is unconstitutional and violates international treaties.

“The right to life is about to become the weakest of rights,” said Mr Fiad.

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Women march in favour of legalising abortion in Argentina (Marco Ugarte/AP)

“The only way to understand this is through the point of view of public health,” he said.

International human rights and women’s groups were following the vote, and figures such as US actress Susan Sarandon and Canadian author Atwood supported the pro-abortion cause in Argentina.

Jose Miguel Vivanco, director for the Americas at Human Rights Watch, said Argentina had a “historic opportunity” to protect the rights of women. Amnesty International told Argentine legislators that “the world is watching”.

Catholic and evangelical groups protested abortion with the slogan, “Argentina, filicide (child murder) will be your ruin.”

Women’s movements across South America have been pushing against decades-old abortion prohibitions.

In neighbouring Brazil, supporters and opponents of abortion recently testified before the Supreme Federal Tribunal in an extraordinary session on whether to allow elective abortions during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

In Brazil, which is home to the world’s largest population of Catholics and fast-growing evangelical faiths, abortion carries a punishment of up to three years in prison. There are three exceptions: if a woman is raped, pregnancy puts her life in danger, or a fetus is brain-dead.

Chile’s Constitutional Court last year upheld legislation ending the Andean nation’s absolute ban on abortions, permitting the procedure when a woman’s life is in danger, when a fetus is not viable or in cases of rape.

Small groups rallied in other countries across the region to voice support for the Argentine abortion measure, including in Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru.

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