Argentina’s Senate takes up bill Oking elective abortions

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentina’s Senate on Wednesday began debating a bill that would legalize elective abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy in the homeland of Pope Francis, setting up a vote that could reverberate around the region.

The lower house of Congress already has passed the measure, and Argentine President Mauricio Macri has said he will sign it if approved by the Senate. The Senate also could modify the bill and return it to the lower house.

Argentina currently allows abortion only in cases of rape or risks to a woman’s health, and activists say 3,000 women have died of illegal abortions since 1983. Opponents contend life starts at conception and say the bill could force doctors to perform the procedure even when they believe it is hazardous.

The issue has divided Argentines, pitting conservative doctors and the Roman Catholic Church against feminist groups and other physicians.

Hundreds of physicians have staged anti-abortion protests, in one case laying their white medical coats on the ground outside the presidential palace. Feminist groups have held protests, often wearing green, a color that symbolizes their movement, or outfits based on characters in Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

Daiana Anadon, leader of the feminist group Wave, said she and hundreds of other women will remain outside the legislature “until the final moment because we believe the power of the street will move the situation.”

International groups are following the vote, and figures such as Atwood and U.S. actress Susan Sarandon have supported the pro-abortion cause in Argentina.

Catholic and evangelical groups protested abortion with the slogan, “Argentina, filicide will be your ruin.”