A momentous day for the country.
Argentina has passed a law to legalise abortion.
The country’s senate voted early today, December 30, in favour of legalising abortion up until 14 weeks gestation. The landmark decision makes Argentina the first major Latin American country to make abortion legal.
The vote, which took place in the senate’s Buenos Aires building, was passed with 38 in favour and 29 against. One senator abstained from the vote.
This ruling came following a lengthy debate among senators, many of whom cited the country’s strong influence by the Catholic church as reason for their decision to vote against the motion. The majority, however, were in favour of liberalising women’s rights in the country.
Prior to this, abortion was only permitted in Argentina in cases in rape or where there was a serious threat to the health of the mother. A similar Bill was voted down by the senate in 2018.
Argentina is the first major country to legalise abortion in Latin America. Terminations are also permitted on demand in Cuba, Uruguay, and some parts of Mexico.
Following the announcement, thousands of pro-choice campaigners took to the streets of Buenos Aires and elsewhere to celebrate the ruling.
“We did it sisters. We made history,” said politician Monica Macha on Twitter. “We did it together. There are no words for this moment, it passes through the body and the soul.”
Campaigner and psychiatrist Ester Albarello said that the Catholic’s church’s influence over Argentina is the reason why abortion rights had long been ignored.
“Our country is a country of many contradictions,” she said. “It is the only one in the world that brought members of its genocidal military dictatorship to justice with all the guarantees.
“But we still don’t have legal abortion. Why? Because the church is together with the state.”
Some time before the ruling Pope Francis, who was born in Argentina, tweeted: “The Son of God was born an outcast, in order to tell us that every outcast is a child of God.
“He came into the world as each child comes into the world, weak and vulnerable, so that we can learn to accept our weaknesses with tender love.”
