The debate on the legalization of abortion in Argentina opened Thursday, December 10 before the National Assembly and promises to be just as polarized as in 2018, when deputies voted for the law authorizing abortion before the Senate did not reject it a few days later.
Read also: In Argentina, the Senate rejects the legalization of abortion
Debated for ten days in committee and amended, the text is studied by the deputies during an extraordinary session open since 11:00 am in Buenos Aires (2:00 pm GMT).
At the initiative of center-left president Alberto Fernandez, the bill authorizing voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) until the 14th week should be voted on Friday.
The party in power and its allies seem to gather enough forces in favor of the text, but it is in front of the upper house, where an alliance of center-left and Peronist right has a large majority, that will be decided before the end. of the year the issue that strongly divides Argentine society.
In 2018, under the mandate of the former center-right president, Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), thirty-eight senators opposed the text, against 31 for and two abstentions.
This is the ninth time that a bill on abortion has been tabled in parliament, but it is the first time that the initiative has come from the executive.
The bill tabled in mid-November authorizes abortion “
until the 14th week of pregnancy
”.
It provides for a “
conscientious objection
” for healthcare professionals refusing to practice it, but obliges them to “
refer the patient to
appropriate
care
”.
At the same time, a “
Thousand Days Plan
” also intends to “
strengthen access to care during pregnancy and during the first years of a child's life
” for families in a situation of financial vulnerability.
In this country of 45 million predominantly Catholic inhabitants and homeland of Pope Francis, abortion is only legal in cases of rape or danger to the mother's life, according to a law in force since the 1920s. Pioneer for the promulgation of laws on same-sex marriage and gender identity in Latin America, Argentina could, if the text is adopted by parliament, join Cuba, Uruguay, Guyana and the province of Mexico, the only ones to authorize abortion without conditions in the region.