In March 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that abortion is legal in cases of rape or threat to women`s lives and that an affidavit of rape is sufficient to allow legal abortion. It also ruled that provincial governments should draft protocols to request and process legal abortions in cases of rape or danger to life. [33] [34] With Argentina now legalizing abortion until week 14, activists in major neighboring countries like Chile and Brazil will no doubt use this precedent to help their cause rewrite the law in their countries and allow broader reproductive rights in a region known for its strict restrictions on abortion. In May 2006, the government published a draft reform of the penal code, which includes the decriminalization of abortion. A committee examined the matter and prepared a draft for submission to Congress. The draft was signed by the Secretary of Criminal Policy and Penitentiary, Alejandro Slokar. On 28 May 2007, a group of 250 NGOs that formed the National Campaign for Legal, Safe and Free Abortion submitted to the Argentine Chamber of Deputies a bill that would allow unlimited access to elective abortions up to the 12th week of pregnancy and allow women to have abortions in cases of rape after that period. severe fetal malformations and mental or physical risk to the woman. [31] [32] Opposition to abortion focuses on two fronts: the religious, led by the Catholic Church and expressed by the ecclesiastical hierarchy[58] and a number of civil organizations that consider abortion murder; and the legal, represented by those who claim that abortion is prohibited by the Constitution (which is to repeal the Penal Code). [ref. Throughout the region, abortions are only available on demand in communist Cuba, relatively tiny Uruguay, and parts of Mexico. On 12 December 2019, Argentina`s Ministry of Health published a protocol extending access to nosocomial abortions to pregnancies resulting from rape.
[41] In addition, the protocol provided that girls aged 13 and over could have an abortion in such cases without parental consent. [41] The protocol also weakened a physician`s ability to refuse such abortions, even on the basis of personal objections. [41] In November 2007, the legislature of La Pampa province passed an abortion protocol law that included provisions for conscientious objectors and required public hospitals to comply with an abortion request in all cases. This would have made La Pampa the first district in Argentina to have an abortion protocol with the status of provincial law. [53] [54] However, the bill was rejected by Governor Oscar Mario Jorge as one of his first acts of government less than three weeks later, arguing that its new interpretation of the previous law could be considered unconstitutional. The protocol was attacked with the same argument by the bishop of Santa Rosa, Rinaldo Fidel Bredice, on the day of its first adoption. [55] Argentina joins a small group of Latin American and Caribbean countries that have legalized abortion, including Uruguay, Cuba, and Guyana. A large majority of countries in the region restrict access unless the mother`s life is threatened, and some countries prohibit it altogether. Through persistent mobilization, activists convinced officials and their fellow citizens that the abortion ban had failed – and that only legal access could solve the serious public health crisis plaguing Argentine women, especially those who are poor. Argentina has come close to legalizing abortion in the past.
In 2018, the bill failed in the Senate by just seven votes — the country was then led by President Mauricio Macri, who did not actively support the measure. Voluntary abortion (IVI) has been called for by the feminist movement since the 1970s. [10] In 2005, the National Campaign for Legal, Safe and Free Abortion was founded, an organization that campaigns for the legalization of abortion in Argentina. [11] Since 2007, the campaign has submitted a law legalizing abortion to the National Congress every year, but it was first placed on the legislative agenda in 2018,[12] when then-President Mauricio Macri sponsored the debate. The law was passed by the Chamber of Deputies but rejected by the Senate. [13] [14] [15] [16] In 2020, newly elected President Alberto Fernandez kept his campaign promise and sent a new government-sponsored law (slightly different from the one drafted by the campaign) to legalize abortion on demand up to the 14th week of pregnancy. [17] It was again adopted by the Chamber of Deputies and this time by the Senate in December 2020. [2] Prior to 2020, a 1921 law regulated access to abortion and penalties. [18] Any woman who intentionally induced her own abortion or consented to another person performing it could face one to four years in prison. In addition, each participant in the trial faces up to fifteen years in prison, depending on the woman`s consent, eventual death and the participant`s intention. The same penalty applies to doctors, surgeons, midwives and pharmacists who initiated or participated in the initiation of an abortion, with the addition of a withdrawal of a special license for twice the duration of their sentence. However, abortion could be legally performed by a certified doctor if: How has abortion only recently become a central political issue? The letter states that restrictions on abortion in Argentina „promote unsafe procedures and increase maternal mortality and morbidity.
This constitutes a violation of the right to health. He continues: „Reproductive rights form the basis for pregnant women`s self-determination over their bodies and their sexual and reproductive lives and are crucial for them to reach their maximum potential as human beings. The president also said the provision of free and legal abortions until the 14th birthday will be suspended. Pregnancy week is a public health problem, since „every year, about 38,000 women“ are hospitalized for clandestine abortions and „since the restoration of democracy [in 1983] more than 3,000 have died.“ Although largely illegal throughout the region, about 5.4 million abortions took place each year in Latin America and the Caribbean between 2015 and 2019, the Guttmacher Institute reported. In June 2007, the legislative body in Rosario, Santa Fe province, adopted a protocol similar to that of Buenos Aires. Doctors who support a woman within the meaning of article 86 of the Criminal Code are obliged to explain her condition to the patient, to propose the choice of abortion and to advise before and after the abortion. The protocol explicitly prohibits legalizing the procedure and warns that doctors who delay a legal abortion will be subject to administrative penalties and civil or criminal prosecution. [51] [52] The abortion law allows abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. Currently, abortion is only legal in Argentina if the mother`s life is in danger or if the pregnancy is the result of rape.
Women who do not fall under these provisions and who have an abortion may be prosecuted. Several cases of pregnancy as a result of rape and one case with a non-viable fetus have sparked a debate about abortion in Argentina since the beginning of the 21st century. In 2001, Luciana Monzón, 25, of Rosario, Santa Fe, discovered that the fetus in her womb had died in the 16th century. week of pregnancy was anencephalic. There was virtually no chance of survival for the baby once it left the womb. Four weeks later, she sought judicial authorization to terminate her pregnancy. First, one judge, then another apologized for processing the request, and the case went to the Santa Fe Supreme Court, which ordered the first judge to decide.
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