In milestone for Latin America, Argentina legalizes abortion
BUENOS AIRES — Argentina on Wednesday became the largest nation in Latin America to legalize abortion, a landmark vote in a conservative region and a victory for a grassroots movement that turned years of rallies into political power.
The high-stakes vote, during 12 hours of often dramatic debate in the Senate, gripped the nation. And it exposed the tensions between a conservative society long influenced by the Catholic Church and a more secular generation fired up by a growing feminist movement.
“When I was born, women did not vote, we did not inherit, we could not manage our assets, we could not have bank accounts, we didn't have credit cards, we couldn't go to university,” Sen. Silvia Sapag said in an emotional speech after the vote. “When I was born, women were nobody.”
Now, she added, for all the women who fought for those legal rights and more, “let it be law.”
The effects of the legalization vote likely will ripple across Latin America, galvanizing abortionrights advocates elsewhere in the region.
The symbol of that effort in Argentina — green handkerchiefs — has begun showing up in other countries where women have poured into the streets demanding greater support for their rights.
Argentine groups that had worked against the abortion legislation, with the active support of Pope Francis, vowed not to give up This doesn't end here,” said Ana Belén Marmora, an activist in the anti-abortion group Youth Front. “We will not allow our voices to be ignored like this.”
As she spoke, a sonogram was carried out on a pregnant woman on a stage as people cheered: “Long live life!”
But the mood outside the neoclassical Palaceofcongress, where tens of thousands gathered while the bill was being debated into the early hours, was one of elation.
Many in the crowd were part of a grassroots effort that had made a concerted push for women's rights, and focused on abortion access as its main goal.
When news came that the bill had been approved by a widerthan-expected margin — 38-29, with one abstention — supporters turned the night into a celebration alive with music and dancing, tears and wildly waving green handkerchiefs.
“I can't explain in words the happiness I'm feeling right now,” said Eugenia Basile, 27, an economist.
Others felt a profound sense of awe for the years of activism — the marches, the online campaigning, the slow change of public opinion — that culminated in this moment, and grief for the womenwhowere lost to unsafe abortions along the way.
“I'm very emotional for all those who couldn't be here today,” said Aracelli Orellana, 29, an office worker who said her friend Marisa Sanchez died from a clandestine abortion when she was a high school student.
The mood was markedly different on the other side of Congress, where opponents of legalization were gathered in smaller numbers than two years ago, when the Senate rejected a similar bill.
Just hours before the Senate took up the measure Tuesday afternoon, the pope, who is Argentine but has sought to distance himself from political debates in his homeland, issued a message that appeared to speak to the issue.
“The Son of God was born an outcast, in order to tell us that every outcast is a child of God,” he tweeted. “He came into the world as each child comes into theworld, weak and vulnerable, so that we can learn to accept our weaknesses with tender love.”
Argentine President Alberto Fernández has promised to sign the bill into law, making it legal for womento end pregnancies for any reason up to 14 weeks. After that, exceptions will be allowed for rape and the woman's health. In public hospitals, the procedure would be free.
Fernándezwas a powerful backer of the measure, but the bill's approval owed much of its success to the years of work by Argentina's grassroots women's rights advocates.
Uruguay, Cuba and Guyana are the only other countries in Latin America to allow abortion without restriction in early pregnancy.
Other Latin American countries, including El Salvador and Honduras, have stricter limits or total prohibitions, with zealous prosecution of women whose pregnancies don't end in a live birth. Women who miscarry often fall under suspicion, and those convicted of having abortions can be sentenced to decades in prison.
“Legalizing abortion in Argentina is a gigantic victory that protects fundamental rights and will inspire change in Latin America,” said Tamara Taraciuk Broner, the Americas deputy director for Human Rights Watch.