Argentina Votes Against Decriminalizing Abortion
While here in the United States the fate of Roe v Wade hangs in precarious balance as Americans wait for the Senate’s vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, the majority Catholic nation of Argentina has faced a major blow in securing abortion rights and ultimately, women’s rights.
On August 8th, after a rigorous 16-hour debate, the Argentine Senate voted against decriminalizing abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy in a close 38 to 31 votes with two abstentions. The law, formally titled the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy (VIP), narrowly passed in the Argentine House in June. The current abortion law in Argentina only permits abortion in the cases of rape or extreme risks to women’s health. The abortion ban chiefly affects poor Argentine women, and complications from illegal abortions are the main cause of maternal death in Argentina.
Ahead of the Senate’s vote, special interest groups, predominantly feminist abortion activists and the Catholic Church and conservative elites and physicians, mobilized in an attempt to sway the lawmakers to vote for their side. Grassroots feminist groups, like Ni Una Menos (“Not One Less”), have been coalescing for awareness of gender violence and less restrictive abortion laws since the 2015 femicide of 14-year-old Chiara Perez, who was beaten to death by her 16-year-old boyfriend who tried to force her to have an abortion. The group and other pro-abortion coalitions have staged large-scale demonstrations while sporting green scarves, the symbol of their movement, and the red cloaks and white bonnets emblematic of the dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Supporters of the law framed the debate as access to legal and safe abortions or illegal and possibly fatal abortions, as activists approximate that around three thousand Argentine women have died from botched abortions since 1983. Magdalena Odarda, a senator for Rio Negro province, stated, “We’re not deciding abortion yes or no. We’re deciding abortion in a hospital, or illegal abortion, with a clothes hanger, or anything else that puts a woman in a humiliating, degrading situation — a real torture.” The Catholic Church traditionally has major political clout in this Latin American country, as the current Pontiff, Pope Francis, hails from Argentina. Earlier this year, Pope Francis likened abortion to twentieth century Nazi eugenics. The Argentine Catholic Church asserts that restricting abortions ensures the right to life. Anti-abortion activists launched the #SalvemosLasDosVidas (Save the Two Lives) campaign in reaction to the bill passing the House.
Along with legalizing abortion up to fourteen weeks, the VIP would have comprehensively provided free abortion in public and private hospitals, mandated a waiting period of five days to secure an abortion and required counseling and medical treatment before and after the procedure. Now, instead of legal free abortions, Argentine women faced with the difficult choice of abortion must turn to primitive solutions: misoprostol, a pill readily available to the wealthy through a prescription, ingesting poisonous drinks, using a coat hanger or knitting needle to penetrate the amniotic sac inside the womb, etc. Because of the Senate’s failure to pass this pivotal law, more women will die.
Yet activists remain optimistic and view this negative vote as a temporary roadblock. Many regard this abortion rights movement as finally gaining political and social traction and believe that the reproductive rights debate has not been stifled. We, American feminists, send power and solidarity to our sisters in Argentina fighting the good fight for women’s rights, and ultimately, human rights.
