Argentine President Alberto Fernandez announced that his government is finalizing a bill to legalize abortion, to be presented to Parliament.
“We are putting the final touches” to a bill, Fernandez (center-left) said on an Argentine radio station. “I hope the issue does not turn into a new source of conflict between Argentines. Let us respect each other.”
This week, pro-abortion activists publicly called on the president to honor a pledge he made during his election campaign.
There is a deep divide in Argentine society over the issue of abortion. A parliamentary debate on the issue had sparked in 2018 a wave of pro-abortion demonstrations and others condemning it.
During a historic vote, the House of Representatives approved a text legalizing abortion up to the fourteenth week of pregnancy, but the Senate under former President Maurizio Macri (2015-2019) reversed the legislation a few weeks later.
Fernandes, who reminded of his commitment to file a bill in this regard, noted that “abortions are continuing and many women die while undergoing it in secret,” and he regrets the delay in Parliament due to the epidemic.
In this South American country, a woman has no right to abort her fetus except in cases of rape and a risk to the life of the pregnant woman. Every year, about 400,000 abortions are performed in Argentina, which has a population of 45 million, often in precarious conditions, according to organizations working to defend women’s rights.-
