Argentina moves toward legalizing abortion

[lpetrich]

 Abortion law - The World's Abortion Laws | Center for Reproductive Rights

Abortion laws vary widely from full acceptance in early pregnancy to outright prohibition, and in Latin America, the laws are mostly on the restrictive side, due to the influence of the Catholic Church. Only a few nations and regions in it are on the fully-accepting side:

Cuba (1965), Mexico City (2007), Uruguay (2012), Oaxaca (Mexico) (2019)

It looks like Argentina will soon join them.

• Argentine congress debates abortion rights; activists gather - 2020 Dec 10
• Argentina's lower house approves bill legalizing abortion - 2020 Dec 11
• Argentine Senate weighs fate of abortion in pope's homeland - 2020 Dec 29
• Bill legalizing abortion passed in pope's native Argentina - 2020 Dec 30

From the second link:

The proposed law was approved in a 131-117 vote with six abstentions after a marathon debate that extended from Thursday into the early hours of Friday morning. Some of its backers were lawmakers in the opposition.

...
While the bill passed the lower house, the outlook is less clear in the country’s Senate. Two years ago, during the administration of more conservative President Mauricio Macri, the upper house voted against a similar bill to legalize abortion after it was narrowly approved by the lower house

From the fourth link:

After a marathon 12-hour session, the country’s Senate passed the law after midnight by a comfortable 38-29 margin just two years after a similar initiative fell short in a cliffhanger vote.

...
The legislation, which President Alberto Fernández has vowed to sign into law in the coming days, guarantees abortion up to the 14th week of pregnancy and beyond that in cases of rape or when a woman’s health is at risk.

 

[lpetrich]

 Abortion in Argentina - "Abortion in Argentina was legalized up to fourteen weeks of pregnancy on 30 December 2020.[1][2] The President has 10 days to veto the law entirely or partially and sign it into law. Once signed, the law will enter into force 8 days after its publication on the official journal. "

No word on further progress on that bill.

Brazilian women head to Argentina to avoid abortion ban

 

[lpetrich]

Abortion Is Now Legal in Argentina, but Opponents Are Making It Hard to Get - The New York Times
"Anti-abortion activists are suing to block a new law allowing the procedure, and many doctors in conservative areas have declared themselves conscientious objectors."

For the first time in more than a century, women in Argentina can legally get an abortion, but that landmark shift in law may do them little good at hospitals like the one in northern Jujuy Province where all but one obstetrician have a simple response: No.

Abortion opponents are reeling after a measure legalizing the procedure was signed into law in December, but they have hardly given up. They have filed lawsuits arguing that the new law is unconstitutional. And they have made sure doctors know that they can refuse to terminate pregnancies, a message that is being embraced by many in rural areas.

...
Argentina’s abortion law represented a big shift for reproductive rights in Latin America, which has among the strictest such laws in the world, galvanizing movements to expand access to safe abortion in Colombia, Mexico and Chile.

But even officials in President Alberto Fernández’s administration, which introduced the bill, acknowledge that hard work remains to ensure that women are able to gain access to the procedure. “Activists will have to play a key role,” Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta, Argentina’s minister of women, gender and diversity, said in an interview.

The law, which went into effect on Jan. 24, allows pregnancies to be terminated in the first 14 weeks. Before then, abortion, which was outlawed when Argentina adopted its first criminal code in 1886, was legal only in cases of rape or if the pregnancy posed a threat to the mother’s health.

In recent days, anti-abortion activists — who battled unsuccessfully as lawmakers debated the measure — have turned to the courts, filing lawsuits in at least 10 provinces seeking to have the new law declared unconstitutional.

 

[Angra Mainyu]

Abortion Is Now Legal in Argentina, but Opponents Are Making It Hard to Get - The New York Times
"Anti-abortion activists are suing to block a new law allowing the procedure, and many doctors in conservative areas have declared themselves conscientious objectors."

For the first time in more than a century, women in Argentina can legally get an abortion, but that landmark shift in law may do them little good at hospitals like the one in northern Jujuy Province where all but one obstetrician have a simple response: No.

Abortion opponents are reeling after a measure legalizing the procedure was signed into law in December, but they have hardly given up. They have filed lawsuits arguing that the new law is unconstitutional. And they have made sure doctors know that they can refuse to terminate pregnancies, a message that is being embraced by many in rural areas.

...
Argentina’s abortion law represented a big shift for reproductive rights in Latin America, which has among the strictest such laws in the world, galvanizing movements to expand access to safe abortion in Colombia, Mexico and Chile.

But even officials in President Alberto Fernández’s administration, which introduced the bill, acknowledge that hard work remains to ensure that women are able to gain access to the procedure. “Activists will have to play a key role,” Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta, Argentina’s minister of women, gender and diversity, said in an interview.

The law, which went into effect on Jan. 24, allows pregnancies to be terminated in the first 14 weeks. Before then, abortion, which was outlawed when Argentina adopted its first criminal code in 1886, was legal only in cases of rape or if the pregnancy posed a threat to the mother’s health.

In recent days, anti-abortion activists — who battled unsuccessfully as lawmakers debated the measure — have turned to the courts, filing lawsuits in at least 10 provinces seeking to have the new law declared unconstitutional.

I predict that the lawsuits will not succeed. They will slow things down sometimes, but in the end superior courts will rule in favor of the law - the Supreme Court, if it gets to that. Conscientious objectors are a different matter: many doctors, nurses, etc., will refuse no matter what, and that will make it very difficult to get in some provinces, at least for a while.

 

[ZiprHead]

Mexico’s Supreme Court Votes to Decriminalize Abortion
The ruling, which sets a precedent for the legalization of abortion nationwide, follows years of efforts by a growing women’s movement in Mexico.

 

[lpetrich]

The World's Abortion Laws | Center for Reproductive Rights
 Abortion law

Most Latin American countries are very restrictive about abortion, something from the influence of the Catholic Church, and more recently, evangelicals. Exceptions:

• Cuba: legalized in 1965 (12 weeks)
• Guyana: legalized in 1995 (8 weeks) - confusing status
• Uruguay: legalized in 2012 (12 weeks)
• Argentina: legalized in 2021 (14 weeks)

Cuba was able to do it because Fidel Castro's Communists had taken over, and they sidelined the Catholic Church as the Opium of the People.

Mexico has a lot of variation among its states, with some of its states being much more abortion-friendly than others.

• Mexico City: legalized in 2007 (12 weeks)
• Oaxaca: legalized in 2019 (12 weeks)
• Hidalgo, Veracruz

Mexico decriminalizes abortion, a dramatic step in world’s second-biggest Catholic country - The Washington Post

Mexico’s supreme court voted unanimously on Tuesday to decriminalize abortion, a striking step in a country with one of the world’s largest Catholic populations and a move that contrasts sharply with tighter restrictions introduced across the border in Texas.

Eight of the 11 supreme court judges had expressed support for decriminalization in arguments that began Monday, making the decision virtually inevitable.

...
The court was asked to rule on a law in the northern state of Coahuila that establishes jail terms of up to three years for women who procure illegal abortions.

Abortion wouldn’t instantly become widely available, but the ruling will “outline a route, a criteria” that states will use to change their laws, said Diego Valadés, a former supreme court judge. The decision will automatically free women who have been jailed for getting abortions, he said.

“It will have very broad effects,” he said.

So Mexico's status is still up in the air.

 

[Rhea]

But nevertheless in the right direction - the conversation cannot be stopped now.

 

[TomC]

The World's Abortion Laws | Center for Reproductive Rights
 Abortion law

Most Latin American countries are very restrictive about abortion, something from the influence of the Catholic Church, and more recently, evangelicals. Exceptions:

• Cuba: legalized in 1965 (12 weeks)
• Guyana: legalized in 1995 (8 weeks) - confusing status
• Uruguay: legalized in 2012 (12 weeks)
• Argentina: legalized in 2021 (14 weeks)

Cuba was able to do it because Fidel Castro's Communists had taken over, and they sidelined the Catholic Church as the Opium of the People.

Mexico has a lot of variation among its states, with some of its states being much more abortion-friendly than others.

• Mexico City: legalized in 2007 (12 weeks)
• Oaxaca: legalized in 2019 (12 weeks)
• Hidalgo, Veracruz

Mexico decriminalizes abortion, a dramatic step in world’s second-biggest Catholic country - The Washington Post

Mexico’s supreme court voted unanimously on Tuesday to decriminalize abortion, a striking step in a country with one of the world’s largest Catholic populations and a move that contrasts sharply with tighter restrictions introduced across the border in Texas.

Eight of the 11 supreme court judges had expressed support for decriminalization in arguments that began Monday, making the decision virtually inevitable.

...
The court was asked to rule on a law in the northern state of Coahuila that establishes jail terms of up to three years for women who procure illegal abortions.

Abortion wouldn’t instantly become widely available, but the ruling will “outline a route, a criteria” that states will use to change their laws, said Diego Valadés, a former supreme court judge. The decision will automatically free women who have been jailed for getting abortions, he said.

“It will have very broad effects,” he said.

So Mexico's status is still up in the air.

Wouldn't it be ironic,

If five years from now, due to the vagaries of USA politics, Mexico had less restrictive abortion laws than the USA?
It's quite possible.
Tom