Argentinians wept on the streets of Buenos Aires early Friday morning after the nation’s lower house passed a bill to legalize the killing of unborn babies in abortions.
The AP reports the legislation, introduced by President Alberto Fernandez, passed at 7 a.m. Friday after 20 hours of debate.
The final vote was 131-117 with six abstentions. It now move to the Argentine Senate where pro-lifers hope lawmakers will reject it as they did a similar pro-abortion bill in 2018.
The bill would allow unborn babies to be aborted for any reason up to 14 weeks of pregnancy and later in cases of rape or dangers to the mother’s life or health. Currently, Argentina prohibits abortions except in cases of rape or threats to the mother’s life.
Crux reports lawmakers did amend the bill Friday to include conscience protections and parental involvement requirements for young girls, but the provisions are weak.
According to the report:
The two major changes were allowing for institutional conscience objection, though private hospitals that refuse to provide abortions will have to “pay for expenses” a patient has to incur to get an abortion at another place. In addition, girls under 13 who want an abortion will need the consent of at least one of their parents, and those under 16 will need the “written consent” of an adult.
ACTION ALERT: Contact the Argentina Senate to oppose the bill.
Outside the congressional building, thousands of pro-life and pro-abortion protesters gathered on the streets to await the vote. After it was announced, abortion activists rejoiced and hugged each other (the AP noted that many did not seem “to care about the social distancing imposed to combat the coronavirus pandemic”). Meanwhile, pro-lifers wept and hung their heads, according to the reports.
“It’s clear that the worst of this 2020 is not COVID-19,” Bishop Sergio Buenanueva of San Francisco, Argentina, responded soon afterward in a statement online.
Pro-life leaders said Argentinians do not want abortions to be legal in their country. The pro-life coalition Unidad Provida encouraged people to protest against the radical pro-abortion bill.
“With a combination of anger at the president’s contempt for life and enthusiasm for the trust given in the overwhelming strength of #LaMayoríaCeleste [the pro-life movement], pro-lifers will go to the streets to demand the rejection of the abortion law,” the pro-life coalition said.
Pro-lifers have organized protests, education campaigns, prayer vigils and other efforts to keep their country’s pro-life laws in place. According to Crux, Catholic, Jewish, Orthodox, Muslim and Evangelical Protestant leaders and adherents gathered for a prayer service earlier this week to ask God to protect unborn babies and stop the pro-abortion bill.
Meanwhile, Unidad Provida is urging lawmakers to drop the bill and enact policies that support “the care of the two lives that are at stake in a vulnerable pregnancy” instead.
Some lawmakers also expressed concerns that legalizing abortions would violate human rights.
Here’s more from the AP:
Deputies from different formations have also questioned whether the practice of abortion is constitutional because it violates the American Convention on Human Rights, to which they attribute a higher hierarchy than national law and which establishes that the right to life “is protected by law and , in general, from the moment of conception ”.
The opposition Graciela Camano said that abortion is a sign of the “political inability to solve the problems of society.”
“Instead of solving the causes, the lack of education, the poverty, the shortcomings, we come to propose that the solution of the problem remain in the private sphere of women, with the aggravating factor that the man has nothing to say,” she said the legislator.
National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe and Free Abortion, a coalition of pro-abortion groups has been pushing to legalize abortion in Argentina for more than a decade, according to the report. Abortion activist hope that if they convince Argentina, other South American countries will follow its example.
Abortion activists claim approximately 40,000 women are injured or killed in unsafe abortions in Argentina – something Fernández brought up when he introduced the bill. 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.
The people of Argentina strongly oppose the killing of unborn babies in abortions. In 2019, approximately 2 million Argentinians participated in the country’s March for Life. 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. But pro-abortion groups, backed by some of the richest men in the world, continue to put intense pressure on countries to legalize abortion on demand.
ACTION ALERT: Contact the Argentina Senate to oppose the bill.
