Argentine President Alberto Fernandez resurrected his plans Tuesday to legalize the killing of unborn babies in abortions in the form of a bill to the country’s congress.
France 24 reports Fernandez made the announcement after his plans to introduce the bill in March were delayed because of the coronavirus.
Currently, Argentina protects unborn babies from being killed in abortions. Exceptions are allowed in cases of rape or threats to the mother’s life. Most countries in Central and South America protect unborn babies from abortion, but Fernández wants Argentina to change that.
“Legalizing abortion saves women’s lives and preserves their reproductive capabilities, which are often affected by unsafe abortions, but it does not increase the number of abortions or promote them,” he said Tuesday.
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None of this is true. Abortions destroy lives, they do not save them, and pro-abortion laws do jeopardize the lives of more unborn babies by putting the government’s approval on killing them.
Abortion activists claim approximately 40,000 women are injured or killed in unsafe abortions in Argentina – something Fernández brought up in his announcement, according to The Independent. But the claim is highly questionable. Pro-abortion groups often overestimate the number of illegal and unsafe abortions that occur in countries across the world, and some have admitted to lying about the numbers.
Growing research also indicates that access to basic health care, not abortion, is what really helps improve women’s lives. For example, in 2018, Michelle Oberman, a Santa Clara University professor, told the Atlantic that she was surprised when she began doing research on abortion in El Salvador. Abortions are illegal there, and she said she expected to find hospitals full of women dying from botched abortions, but she did not. According to Oberman’s research, better medical care, along with an increased availability of abortion drugs online, are leading to fewer maternal abortion deaths.
A recent Washington Post fact check also found what pro-life advocates have been saying for years: that, in the United States, few women died from abortions in the decade prior to Roe v. Wade, and a rise in the use of antibiotics appears to be the biggest factor in the drop in maternal deaths, not legalized abortions.
Still, in Argentina, international pro-abortion groups are putting intense pressure on Fernandez and congress to pass anti-life legislation.
“It’s time we said goodbye to decades of violations of sexual and reproductive rights,” said Mariela Belski, executive director of Amnesty International Argentina. “Legalizing abortion is a human rights imperative and a necessary step towards becoming, once and for all, a more equal society.”
Though details of the president’s proposal are not yet known, a health official told MENAFN Newsroom Panama earlier this year that the bill would legalize abortions through 14 weeks of pregnancy.
Shena Cavallo, of the International Women’s Health Coalition, one of the pro-abortion groups lobbying for the legislation, argued that aborting unborn babies is a human right.
“For too long, women’s rights have been violated and their lives lost because of callous restrictions on abortion care. We urge Argentinean lawmakers to heed the calls of the people and fulfill women’s human rights by passing this bill and legalize abortion,” she said, according to the report.
Pro-lifers have been making their voices heard to lawmakers as well. In 2019, approximately 2 million Argentines participated in the country’s March for Life in Buenos Aires. Thousands more protested in March after Fernandez first announced his plans to legalize abortion on demand.
A similar proposal to legalize the killing of unborn babies in Argentina failed in 2018 because of strong public opposition.
ACTION ALERT: Contact the Argentina Senate and Chamber of Deputies to oppose the bill.
