Argentina: a law is coming to legalize abortion
“We are very happy, today is a historic day. Decriminalization and legalization of abortion are finally within reach. We hope that the congress lives up to the role assigned to it ", it is with great enthusiasm that the writer and activist Ana Correa welcomes the news that abortion could become legal in Argentina. Yesterday, in fact, the new president Alberto Fernández promised that, within 10 days, a bill will be ready to legalize abortion. If the decree were approved, Argentina would become the first country in all of Latin America to make termination of pregnancy legal.
"A public health issue"
Already during the election campaign, the current Argentine president had shown himself particularly sensitive to the issue, which, as he himself declared, "is not a moral or religious issue, but a public health issue".
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A speech of applause
The words spoken in front of Congress during its first annual speech have sparked the hopes of all the women who have been fighting for years to have this right recognized. "21st-century society must respect the individual choice of its members to decide freely about their bodies." Furthermore, the president took the opportunity to denounce a procedure that women too often resort to in the absence of alternatives, clandestine abortion. "Criminalizing abortion has condemned many women, generally the poorest ones, to seek abortions in totally clandestine situations, putting their health and sometimes their lives at risk".
An issue that has always been at the center of public and political debate
Fernandez anticipated his predecessor, the then president Mauricio Macri who, in 2018, had proposed a decree that decriminalized abortion. Despite congressional approval, the more conservative Senate rejected the proposal in the bud.
Currently there is a law that allows the termination of pregnancy only in the event of rape or danger to the life of the woman. However, there are not rare cases in which the norm is not observed, forcing women to fall back on illegal methods for which, not only they risk their lives, but also a sentence and imprisonment.
This brings us back to the case that, a few months ago, shook public opinion around the world. The protagonist is an 11-year-old girl who, after being raped by her grandmother's 65-year-old partner, became pregnant and was denied the right to have an abortion. The desperate appeal of the family was ignored by the institutions that tried in every way to delay the process and persuade the child to carry the pregnancy to term. The victim, who had even attempted suicide, was forced to take hormones to to grow the fetus until it is given birth by caesarean section.
The joy of those who have always fought in favor of this decree
Buenos Aires was tinged with green, the color of hope and health. Feminism movements, distinguished by their green handkerchiefs, took to the streets of Buenos Aires to celebrate what could become a historic turning point for the lives of millions of women, for years deprived of the right to choose.
Several times in the past, the same activists took to the streets to ask for a law that provided for a "legal, safe and free" abortion, the latest on 20 February.
Here it is not just a law, but the freedom of a woman who takes possession of her own body, too often subject to the bigoted impositions of third parties who know nothing and decide everything.
"Tenemos esperanzas that in the parliamentary debate if there is a digno de cara consent to the most powerful movement of the país que es el feminismo". Columna de @martaaalanis para @ page12 Más search de # AbortoLegal2020 💚💪🏾🔥💚https: //t.co/aa0lSBewuL
- # AbortoLegal2020 💚 (@CampAbortoLegal) March 2, 2020
