Mariana Iglesias
02/19/2020 - 7:00
- Clarín.com
- Society
Gabriela Michetti's voice froze the night, already cold and rainy: "38 for no, 31 for yes, two abstentions." The president of the Senate announced what was known to happen: that the upper house was opposed to legal abortion being law. Around the Congress a crowd with green scarves cried at their own unease and the celebration of the "celestial".
18 months passed that morning of August 9, 2018. Far from cooling down, the claim for legal abortion was enhanced. This Wednesday the surroundings of the Congress will again be filled with green scarves and voices, many voices, that will shout the same thing once again: "Let it be law!" .
"Legal abortion is the great debt of democracy," they repeat from the National Campaign for Safe and Free Legal Abortion. This group formed by more than 700 social organizations has already presented eight times projects to make abortion legal. But the first six times he hadn't even passed the ticket table. That is why, two years ago, on February 19, they demonstrated in front of Congress to ask them to discuss the issue. And it was treated. We already know the results. On February 19 last year the claim was insisted again. The 19F was like Green Action Day .
Today is 19F. Today the streets not only of Congress but of a hundred cities across the country will be filled with songs, handkerchiefs, shouts, speeches, manifestos and performances that claim legal abortion. In these years, voices were added, voices of students, thousands of women, men, hundreds of groups. Is that the claim became massive thanks to the information . Through the debate it was repeated that in the country Integral Sex Education (ESI) and the Legal Interruption of Pregnancy (ILE) are law. And they are not fulfilled.
What left us that debate in the congress through which more than 800 speakers passed were data. We knew then - because three health ministers of different managements and political parties assured him that in countries where abortion is legal (all developed countries) low maternal mortality , clandestine abortions disappear and in the long run all abortions also fall because Women are more informed and contraception works better. We also knew - because they were assured by legal specialists - that voluntary termination of pregnancy is not against the Constitution or international treaties but also that rights are progressive , and that women have the right to decide on their bodies.
We also heard the arguments of those who opposed: some of the doctors in suits and ties claiming that a fetus or an embryo is imposed on any desire of a woman, including her life, because the vast majority of those who spoke against legalization also supported the idea of continuing with pregnancies even if they are raped girls . And among them we listen to many directors of Catholic and evangelical religious NGOs who are dedicated to having women continue these pregnancies so that children are born as they are.
Deputies approved the project. The Senate no. In 2019 nobody wanted to touch the subject . It was an election year. Alberto Fernández is now expected to ask at the opening of the legislative sessions that is debated once again. But now the executive will also present a project at the request of the president, who said he wants abortion to be decriminalized and legalized in Argentina. It is the first time that a president shows political will so that legal abortion is law.
On May 28, 2019, the National Campaign for Legal Abortion project was presented for the eighth time in Congress. Photo: Lucia Merle.
A Clarín survey resulted in Deputies 125 voting in favor, 106 against, 25 doubt and one is on leave. In the Senate, 30 would vote in favor, 33 against, 8 doubt and one will also be on leave. That is, the Senate is once again considered as the most complex scenario and where all kinds of negotiations are already woven.
So you get to another 19F of Green Action. But this time the slogan is "The project is on the streets" , because it is no longer about the request of a group but of millions. “This 2020 campaign is 15 years old, has presented its Bill 8 consecutive times. The last one we present guarantees the voluntary termination of pregnancy until week 14 and establishes constitutional rights, adapting to the requirements of International Human Rights Organizations of the that our country is part, ”says a statement from the Campaign. With the handkerchief up and hands together, we will be millions demanding the approval of a law in line with equity in access to comprehensive health, equal care, Comprehensive Sex Education and secular State. ”
“Legal abortion is a debt of democracy. A claim of the feminist struggle that has marked the future of millions of young people in the region, who demand more rights, freedom and autonomy - the text continues. Our claim transcends borders, because unsafe abortions are a public health problem that causes preventable deaths . Our demand is for our dignified life project and for the right to decide freely. Therefore, Our Project is on the streets! ”
It is expected that since 17 the Congress will be a green tide. There will be talks, workshops, recitals, and at 19 the performance of Las Tesis, the Chilean collective that created “The rapist is you”, become a feminist anthem throughout the world . And a handkerchief, with the usual claim: "Sex education to decide, contraceptives not to abort, legal abortion not to die."
