The advance of legal abortion in Argentina gives wings to the green tide in Latin America

Several women celebrate in the streets of Buenos Aires after the Argentine Chamber of Deputies approved a bill that allows free and legal access to abortion.Juan Ignacio Roncoroni / EFE

The legislative advance of an abortion law in Argentina has had a regional impact.

From Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Argentina, feminist organizations and politicians have celebrated the project that aims to legalize the free and free interruption of pregnancy until the 14th week of gestation.

If the Senate definitively approves the text that it has already received from Deputies, Argentina will join the handful of countries that today apply legal abortion: Uruguay, Cuba, Guiana and French Guiana.

It is a short list and of little impact, taking into account the dimension of the problem.

The approval of a legal abortion law in Argentina could give wings to the movements that have been demanding in this regard for decades.

"The defenders of women's rights and feminists see with joy the powerful process that is taking place in Argentina: this green tide that has permeated our country because feminists in Peru also walk with our green scarf," she tells EL PAÍS Liz Meléndez, executive director of the Flora Tristán Peruvian Women's Center, the oldest feminist organization in the Andean country.

"Each achievement adds up to tell our authorities that access to free and safe abortion for the life, health and freedom of women must be guaranteed," he adds.

In Brazil, the feminist and socialist deputy Samia Bonfim, leader of the PSOL (Socialist and Freedom Party) in the Chamber of Deputies, also celebrated the regional dimension of the step taken in Buenos Aires.

"It is a great victory, won after years of much struggle by the feminist movement."

“Congratulations, colleagues!

It's for the lives of women, "he wrote on his Twitter account.

From an opposite position, President Jair Bolsonaro posted on Twitter a video of the celebration of women in Argentina and his followers responded by condemning the approval of the project.

His son, deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PSL), a detractor of the idea of ​​decriminalizing abortion, redoubled his attacks against Brazil's partner in Mercosur, whom he uses as an example of all the evils he considers caused by the left.

He thus criticized a video where in the streets of Buenos Aires they celebrated the advance of the law in front of the Argentine Congress.

"The celebration for the prospect of being able to kill babies shows the degree of degradation experienced in the country," he wrote on Twitter.

In Mexico, some of the main organizations in defense of women's rights have celebrated the Argentine measure.

The Mexican Simone de Beauvoir Institute woke up with a premonitory tweet: "Good morning and feminist days."

Also the main organization in favor of reproductive rights, Gire, has signed legislation that they still do not see reflected in their country, they recall.

In Mexico, the decriminalization of abortion, without the causes of rape or health of the mother, has only been possible in Mexico City and Oaxaca, for a year.

The deputy of the National Chamber for the Citizen Movement party, Martha Tagle, has said that she expects the positive impact of the green tide that comes from the south.

“I hope that it affects positively and puts pressure.

The problem is many politicians continue to believe that talking about abortion will entail a high political cost and that we live in a very conservative country.

But what Argentina has shown us today is the opposite, talking about the rights of women in the region makes a lot of sense.

The feminist movement has shown that there is a generation of young girls aware of their rights that they are not willing to give up ”, she tells this newspaper from the other end of the phone.

In Chile, the 8M Feminist Coordinator, which brings together groups from all over the territory and organizes the massive marches in March, also applauded what happened in Argentina: “Today the girls have shown us once again that tireless determination of the feminist movement.

The Chamber of Deputies has once again said yes and now the Senate remains.

We are sure that this time #SeraLey ”, the Chilean coordinator wrote on social networks, where the women's movement has been the spearhead of the social mobilizations of the last year.

Between 1990 and 2017, in Chile abortion was punished in all its cases.

Just three years ago it was decriminalized in case of danger to the mother's life, fetal malformation and rape.

The NGO Corporación Miles, which has promoted legal changes in favor of women's rights, also celebrated what happened in the Argentine Congress: “The green tide advances!

The historic claim of the Argentine women's movement this morning was heard: deputies approved the initiative of the Executive Power that legalizes abortion until week 14, inclusive.

Now is the Senate #AbortoLegal ”.

Reactions in Chile extended to Congress, where parliamentarians from all political sectors reached an agreement in March to guarantee that the new Chilean Constitution will be drawn up by a joint body.

“Historical what is happening in Argentina!

What a beautiful green tide of female fighters, now going through the Senate!

Let the tide continue to Chile # QueSeaLey2020 #AbortoSeguro #AbortoLegalYA ", wrote communist deputy Camila Vallejo.

Peruvian Liz Meléndez believes that the decision of the Argentine chamber "sets a fundamental precedent in Latin America in the fight for women's right to decide."

“That the final approval in Argentina is possible, and the benchmark in Chile, opens up an important perspective.

In Peru we are far away, but we have to continue fighting, because abortion is not even legal in case of rape ”, he added.

In the same sense, the sociologist and feminist activist Katherine Soto considers the approval in Argentina as "a historical fact, an important precedent for women" throughout the region.

Soto, who coordinates the civil society platform Missing Women, points out that a bill to decriminalize abortion for three reasons is still pending debate in his country.

"We owe an immense debt to girls and women victims of sexual violence who are forced to be mothers: social and institutional violence must be eradicated with the right to decide," she says.