Catholic Argentina moves nearer to legalising abortion

THE lower house of Argentina’s Congress yesterday approved a bill that would legalise elective abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.

It will now be put to a vote in the country’s senate, with Mauricio Macri, the president, saying he would sign it if the bill was again approved.

The measure roused fierce passions in a Catholic nation that is the home of Pope Francis, with the bill being passed by a vote of just 129 to 125.

Argentina currently allows abortion only in cases of rape or risks to a woman’s health. Crowds of supporters and opponents of the measure – kept separate by officials – watched the debate on large screens set up outside the congress in Buenos Aires.

Feminist groups lobbied hard for the measure and demonstrators who had spent the night awaiting the result in sleeping bags and chairs cheered and sang when it was announced.

Backers of the measure said legalising abortion would save the lives of many women who now turn to dangerous illegal abortions. The health ministry estimated in 2016 that as many as half a million unregulated abortions were carried out in the country every year, with dozens of women dying as a result. The Roman Catholic Church and other religious organisations, however, opposed it, saying it violated Argentine law “that guarantees life from the moment of conception”.

Mr Macri, who opposed voluntary abortions, promised that he would not veto the measure if it was adopted.

Efforts to ease or tighten abortion restrictions have repeatedly emerged across Latin America in recent years.

Chile’s Constitutional Court last year upheld a measure that would end its absolute ban, permitting abortions when a woman’s life was in danger, when a foetus was not viable and in cases of rape.

Chile had been the last country in South America to ban abortions in all cases, though several Central America nations have absolute bans. Cuba, Guyana, Puerto Rico and Uruguay permit early-term elective abortions, as does Mexico City.