Argentina's Senate Rejects Legalizing Abortion, Dashing Hopes Of Rights Advocates

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The Senate in predominately Roman Catholic Argentina has rejected a law that would have legalized abortion, rebuffing a grass-roots abortion-rights movement.

Senate lawmakers voted 38 to 31 against the measure, which would have allowed abortion for the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.

Argentina, the homeland of Pope Francis and home to some 30 million Catholics, allows abortions only in cases of rape or danger to the mother's health. Uruguay and Cuba are the only Latin American countries with laws that broadly allow abortion, while Brazil's Supreme Court is in the process of deciding whether to decriminalize abortion in that country.

The vote in Argentina came nearly two months after Argentina's Chamber of Deputies narrowly approved the measure and President Mauricio Macri said that despite his personal opposition to abortion, he was prepared to sign it.

Approval by the lower house galvanized opponents of the measure. Lay Catholics held rallies and took to social media under the motto "Save them both," referring to the mother and child, while bishops released public statements condemning the bill.

On Thursday, anti-abortion activists and abortion-rights advocates — many wearing green bandanas that have come to symbolize the country's growing women's rights movement — stood outside the National Congress as the Senate debate dragged on for more than 16 hours before finally going to a vote.

"What this vote showed is that Argentina is still a country that represents family values," Victoria Osuna, 32, who opposed the measure, told Reuters.

Natalia Carol, a 23-year-old supporter of legalized abortion, said she is "still optimistic."

"It didn't pass today, but it will pass tomorrow, it will pass the next day," she told the news agency. "This is not over."

As NPR's Colin Dwyer reported earlier, the bill's backers had argued it was an important step in a country where an estimated 350,000 to 500,000 illegal abortions occur each year.

Colin writes, "... the secrecy of those procedures is a major problem, according to Amnesty International. The human-rights group says that over the past 30 years, complications from risky abortions have accounted for a third of the maternal deaths in Argentina."

Paula Avila-Guillen, a director of Women's Equality Center, an abortion rights advocacy group, tells Reuters that the bill's supporters are prepared to regroup.

"Just because the bill got shot down, it will not stop the movement," she said. "We will be there at the next legislative opportunity."</s>On Thursday morning, Argentina’s Senate voted to reject a proposed bill that would have legalized abortion in the country.

Abortion has long been illegal in Argentina: Currently, if a woman is found to have undergone the procedure (in instances other than rape or if the mother’s life is in danger), she can be jailed for up to four years. The rejected bill would have legalized abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy for all women.

The recent effort to change Argentina’s abortion laws grew out of a new wave of feminist activism in the country, which started around 2015. That year, the brutal murder of 19-year-old Daiana García sparked uproar over the country’s high rate of femicide — and prompted feminist marches and the creation of anti-femicide collectives in the country.

Soon after, anti-abortion president Mauricio Macri told lawmakers this year that they could reconsider the matter. Argentina’s lower house — the Chamber of Deputies — approved the bill legalizing abortion in June, and on Wednesday, the country’s Senate took up the issue. By Thursday morning, the Senate voted 38 to 31 against the bill.

The proposed bill was met with contentious debate in Argentina; although protests in support of its passage broke out worldwide on Wednesday night, anti-abortion activists also held a rally outside the country’s Congress and the Catholic Church held a “Mass for Life” vigil in Buenos Aires. The bill’s Thursday rejection, activists tell CNN, represents a “huge step backward” for the country.

However, activists also say that the fact that the bill was even debated in the first place was a “victory” of sorts. Despite the outcome of the Thursday vote — which came shortly after Ireland passed a major referendum legalizing abortion — activists told CNN that they will continue to push the legislation with the hopes that it will one day pass.</s>BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentina’s Senate on Thursday rejected a bill to legalize elective abortion, a defeat for a grassroots movement that came closer than ever to achieving the decriminalization of the procedure in the homeland of Pope Francis.

Lawmakers debated for more than 15 hours and voted 38-31 against the measure that would have legalized abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. The decision could echo across Latin America, where anti-abortion forces remains strong even if the Roman Catholic Church has lost influence and moral authority due to secularization, an out-of-touch clerical caste and an avalanche of sex abuse scandals.

For long hours, thousands of supporters wearing green handkerchiefs that represent the effort to legalize abortion and opponents of the measure wearing light blue braved the heavy rain and cold temperatures in Argentina’s winter to watch the debate on large screens set up outside Congress.

The demonstrations were largely peaceful, but after the vote, small groups of protesters clashed with police, throwing firebombs and setting up flaming barricades. Police officers responded with tear gas.

Pushed by a wave of demonstrations by women’s groups, the lower house had already passed the measure and conservative President Mauricio Macri had said that he would sign it, even though he is anti-abortion.

“Regardless of the result, today, democracy wins,” Macri said ahead of the vote.

In Argentina, abortion is only allowed in cases of rape and risks to a woman’s health. Thousands of women, most of them poor, are hospitalized each year for complications linked due to unsafe abortions.

Backers of the measure said legalizing abortion would save the life of many women. The Health Ministry estimated in 2016 that the country sees as many as half a million clandestine abortions each year, with dozens of women dying as a result. The Catholic Church and other groups opposed it, saying it violated Argentine law, which guarantees life from the moment of conception.

In recent years, Argentina has been at the forefront of social movements in the region. In 2010, it became the first country in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage. More recently, the Ni Una Menos, or Not One Less, movement that was created in Argentina to fight violence against women has grown into a global phenomenon.

“There are positive points that have come out of this,” said Buenos Aires provincial Gov. Maria Eugenia Vidal, referring to the large and largely peaceful rival demonstrations.

“Even when there are differing ways of thinking, there’s a plaza in peace right now, with thousands of people defending their convictions,” said

The issue pitted the Catholic Church against feminist groups, physicians against physicians. While abortion rights activists waited for the decision under umbrellas, opponents gathered Wednesday night at a “Mass for Life” at the Metropolitan Cathedral, the church of Pope Francis during his tenure as the archbishop of Buenos Aires.

“It’s not about religious beliefs but about a humanitarian reason,” Cardinal Mario Poli, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, told churchgoers. “Caring for life is the first human right and the duty of the state.”

Pope Francis this year denounced abortion as the “white glove” equivalent of the Nazi-era eugenics program and urged families “to accept the children that God gives them.”

Activists estimate that 3,030 women in Argentina have died of illegal abortions since 1983.

“Let’s recognize that we’re facing a public health tragedy,” said Magdalena Odarda, a senator for Rio Negro province.

“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,” she said.

Many women in Argentina use misoprostol to end first-trimester pregnancies. The drug is only sold under prescription, but for the poorest women the cost of the drug is out of reach.

For many of them, the methods used to induce an abortion include using an IV tube with a sharp wire clothes hanger or a knitting needle to try to break the amniotic sac inside the womb. Others drink herbs, insert dubious non-abortive pills in the vagina, or pump toxic mixtures, which can cause ulcers, hemorrhage and ultimately severe infections, and death.

For months, hundreds of doctors in Argentina had staged anti-abortion protests while feminists and other groups led even larger demonstrations in support of the measure, often wearing green that symbolizes the pro-abortion movement, or red cloaks and white bonnets like the characters from the novel-turned-TV series “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

International human rights and women’s groups have been closely following the vote, and figures such as U.S. actress Susan Sarandon and “The Handmaid’s Tale” author Margaret Atwood supported the pro-abortion cause.

Jose Miguel Vivanco, director for the Americas at Human Rights Watch, said that Argentina had a “historic opportunity” to protect the rights of women. Amnesty International told Argentine legislators that “the world is watching.”

Demonstrations in support of the Argentine abortion measure were held Wednesday in Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay and Ecuador.

Efforts to ease or tighten abortion restrictions have repeatedly emerged across the region in recent years.

In neighbouring Chile, the constitutional Court last year upheld a measure that would end that country’s absolute ban on abortions, permitting abortions when a woman’s life is in danger, when a fetus is not viable and in cases of rape. Chile had been the last country in South America to ban abortion in all cases, though several nations in Central America still have absolute prohibitions.

Cuba, Guyana, Puerto Rico and Uruguay permit early-term elective abortions, as does Mexico City.

“It’s a shame that we were not able to reach a consensus because the problem will continue to exist exactly as it did before we began this debate,” said former President Cristina Fernandez, who is an opposition senator.

“We need to make an effort to resolve this,” she said.</s>Argentine senators rejected a bill to legalize abortion after an impassioned debate ran into the early hours of Thursday, pushing back against a groundswell of support from a surging abortion rights movement.

The Senate voted 38-31 against the proposed measure, which would have legalized a woman's right to seek an abortion into the 14th week of pregnancy. The bill had narrowly passed in the lower house in July.

Families and clergy in baby-blue bandanas gathered outside the congressional palace as the result came in just before 3 a.m., waving Argentine flags in support of the Catholic Church's anti-abortion stance in Pope Francis's home country.

"What this vote showed is that Argentina is still a country that represents family values," anti-abortion activist Victoria Osuna, 32, told Reuters.

Current Argentine law only permits abortions in cases of rape, or if the mother's health is at risk.

Abortion rights supporters, clad in green bandanas that have become a symbol of the movement, danced to drum lines and swarmed the city's streets to the end, despite a biting wind and cold rain.

Many had camped in front of Argentina's National Congress since Wednesday night.

"I'm still optimistic. It didn't pass today, but it will pass tomorrow, it will pass the next day," said abortion rights supporter Natalia Carol, 23. "This is not over."

Uruguay and Cuba are the only Latin American countries that now have broadly legalized abortion.

In Brazil, the Supreme Court is set to consider whether current law — which allows terminating pregnancies only in cases of rape, fetal deformation or when the mother's life is in danger — is unconstitutional.

But passing a pro-abortion law will face hurdles in Brazil's increasingly conservative Congress, with a growing Evangelical Christian caucus that is staunchly opposed.

Women's rights advocates, however, hope that a more liberal judiciary in Brazil will at least decriminalize abortion to help avoid deaths from botched terminations in a country where hundreds of thousands of women resort to clandestine clinics each year.

Ahead of the Senate vote in Argentina, President Mauricio Macri called the debate "a win for democracy." Macri said he was personally against abortion, but would sign the bill if it passed.

Argentina's abortion rights movement, backed by feminist groups galvanized in recent years to stop violence against women, argued that the bill would end unregulated abortions that government data show as the leading cause of maternal deaths.

There are at least 350,000 illegal abortions in Argentina every year, the Ministry of Health estimates, though international human rights groups say the number may be higher.

The move to legalize abortion in Argentina is a "public health and human rights imperative," said New York-based Human Rights Watch.

"Just because the bill got shot down, it will not stop the movement," said Paula Avila-Guillen, a director of Women's Equality Center, an abortion rights advocacy group. "We will be there at the next legislative opportunity."</s>Argentine senators rejected a bill to legalize abortion after an impassioned debate ran into the early hours of Thursday, pushing back against a groundswell of support from a surging abortion rights movement.

The Senate voted 38 to 31 against the proposed measure, which would have legalized a woman’s right to seek an abortion into the 14th week of pregnancy. The bill had narrowly passed in the lower house in July.

Families and clergy in baby-blue bandanas gathered outside the congressional palace as the result came in just before 3 a.m., waving Argentine flags in support of the Catholic Church’s anti-abortion stance in Pope Francis’ home country.

“What this vote showed is that Argentina is still a country that represents family values,” anti-abortion activist Victoria Osuna, 32, told Reuters.

Current Argentine law only permits abortions in cases of rape, or if the mother’s health is at risk.</s>Argentina’s Senate rejected a bill on Wednesday which would have legalized abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.

After a marathon debate, the bill was defeated by 38 senators who voted against it, while 31 voted in favor and two abstained. Despite its text being approved by Congress, experts on the matter believed the bill was going to be defeated in the Senate because many lawmakers had expressed their rejection of it.

Now, lawmakers must wait until next year to resubmit legislation.

Currently, abortion in Argentina is only legal in cases of rape or when the mother’s health is in danger.

Anti-abortion and pro-choice demonstrators rallied outside parliament as voting took place. When the result was made known, anti-abortion activists were jubilant. One of them told Reuters news agency that “this vote showed that Argentina is still a country that represents family values.”

Pro-choice campaigners were visibly angry and some started fires in protest, while many others comforted each other. What the vote in Argentina showed on Wednesday is that Latin America continues to be a region where the influence of the Roman Catholic Church exerts great pressure on legal issues, such as abortion. Cuba, small and progressive Uruguay and Mexico City are the only places in all of Latin America that have decriminalized abortion. If Argentina’s bill had been approved by the Senate, Argentina would had become the first major country in legalizing abortion on the federal level during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.</s>Argentina’s senate has rejected a bill which would have legalised abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.

After a marathon debate, 38 senators voted against it and 31 in favour, the BBC reports.

Its defeat means lawmakers must wait until next year to resubmit legislation.

Currently abortion is allowed in Argentina only in cases of rape, or if the mother’s health is in danger.

Demonstrators on both sides of the debate rallied outside parliament as voting took place.

“What this vote showed is that Argentina is still a country that represents family values,” one told the Reuters news agency.

Pro-choice campaigners said they are not giving up. Some started fires and lobbed missiles at police after the vote.

Pro-choice campaigners have for years tried to get bills passed in Argentina, where the population is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic.

Their efforts gained new impetus when President Mauricio Macri – who opposes abortion – called on Congress to consider a vote on it, and it narrowly passed in the lower house.

For the bill’s advocates, legalising abortion is a matter of public health, with 43 women thought to have died last year after receiving abortions.</s>BUENOS AIRES: Argentine senators on Thursday voted against legalizing abortion in the homeland of Pope Francis, dashing the hopes of women's rights groups after the bill was approved by the legislature's lower house in June.

The vote, with 38 against, 31 in favor and two abstentions, capped a marathon session that began the day before and stretched into the early hours of Thursday before its final conclusion.

Fireworks and shouts of joy erupted among anti-abortion activists camped outside Congress, while pro-choice campaigners, many decked in the green scarves that had come to symbolize their movement, were downcast.

Some burnt garbage and wooden pallets and threw stones at riot police, who attempted to disperse them with tear gas and water cannon.

The vote followed a referendum in Ireland, another traditionally Catholic country, in May that paved the way to legislate for the termination of fetuses. It also came after months of fiercely polarized campaigns on the hot-button issue.

The bill was passed by Congress's lower house in June by the narrowest of margins, but was widely expected to fall short of the votes needed to pass in the Senate.

Lawmakers must now wait a year to resubmit the legislation.

Not giving up

 Miguel Angel Pichetto, a Peronist opposition leader in the Senate, said pro-abortion campaigners would not be giving up.

"The future does not belong to the "No" campaigners. Sooner rather than later, women will have the decision they need, sooner rather than later we will win this debate," he said in his closing speech.

Earlier in the day, scores of buses had brought people from around the country into Buenos Aires for the dueling rallies outside Congress.

Abortion rights supporters wore green scarves while anti-abortion activists donned baby blue. A partition was set up to keep them separated.

Currently, abortion is allowed in Argentina in only three cases, similar to most of Latin America: rape, a threat to the mother's life or if the fetus is disabled.

The bill had sought to legalize abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy and would have seen Argentina join Uruguay and Cuba as the only countries in Latin America to fully decriminalize abortion.

It's also legal in Mexico City. Only in the Central American trio of El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua does it remain totally banned.

Question of rights

 The prospect of legalization had energized women's groups and still retains a huge support from citizens.

Rallies took place around the world in front of Argentine diplomatic missions, mainly in support of the bill.

"Nobody forces you to have an abortion. Don't force me to give birth," read one pro-abortion slogan.

One abortion rights protester in Buenos Aires, 20-year-old Celeste Villalba, said keeping abortions illegal would not prevent them from happening.

"This debate is whether it should be legal or done in secret. It's not about being in favor of abortion or not," she said.

Various charities estimate that 500,000 illegal, secret abortions are carried out every year in Argentina, resulting in around 100 deaths.

Opponents of abortion meanwhile held their own demonstrations.

Priests and nuns were joined by rabbis, imams and members of other Christian churches to oppose the bill.

One of them, Federico Berruete, a 35-year-old priest, joined anti-abortion demonstrators holding up slogans reading "Life starts at conception."

With such division in the country, one lawmaker from the ruling party, Daniel Lipovetzky, suggested that the matter might end up being put to a referendum.

"It's possible that we propose that," he said.

Ireland ended up overturning its own constitutional ban on abortion through a referendum held in May. That dealt a hammer blow to the Catholic Church, which is as revered in Ireland as it is in Argentina.

In mid-June, Argentina's lower house voted in favor of the bill by just 129 to 125, thanks in part to the anti-abortion President Mauricio Macri's insistence on pushing the bill through the legislature.</s>
• The Argentine Senate voted 38 to 31 against a proposed measure that would have legalized a woman’s right to seek an abortion into the 14th week of pregnancy.
• Argentine Senators announced the vote results after an impassioned debate that ran into the early hours of Thursday.
• Women in Argentina are currently only legally permitted to seek abortions in cases of rape or if the mother’s health is at risk.
• Uruguay and Cuba are the only Latin American countries that now have broadly legalized abortion.

Argentine senators rejected a bill to legalize abortion after an impassioned debate ran into the early hours of Thursday, pushing back against a groundswell of support from a surging abortion rights movement.

The Senate voted 38 to 31 against the proposed measure, which would have legalized a woman’s right to seek an abortion into the 14th week of pregnancy. The bill had narrowly passed in the lower house in July.

Families and clergy in baby-blue bandanas gathered outside the congressional palace as the result came in just before 3 a.m., waving Argentine flags in support of the Catholic Church’s anti-abortion stance in Pope Francis’ home country.

“What this vote showed is that Argentina is still a country that represents family values,” anti-abortion activist Victoria Osuna, 32, told Reuters.

Current Argentine law only permits abortions in cases of rape, or if the mother’s health is at risk.

Abortion rights supporters, clad in green bandanas that have become a symbol of the movement, danced to drum lines and swarmed the city’s streets to the end, despite a biting wind and cold rain.

Many had camped in front of Argentina’s National Congress since Wednesday night.

“I’m still optimistic. It didn’t pass today, but it will pass tomorrow, it will pass the next day,” said abortion rights supporter Natalia Carol, 23. “This is not over.”

Demonstrations outside Congress were largely peaceful, but small groups of protesters clashed with police following the results.

Some protesters through firebombs and set up flaming barricades, according to the Associated Press. Police officers responded to the non-peaceful demonstrations with tear gas.

Uruguay and Cuba are the only Latin American countries that now have broadly legalized abortion.

In Brazil, the Supreme Court is set to consider whether current law, which allows terminating pregnancies only in cases of rape, fetal deformation or when the mother’s life is in danger, is unconstitutional.

But passing a pro-abortion law will face hurdles in Brazil’s increasingly conservative Congress, with a growing Evangelical Christian caucus that is staunchly opposed.

Women’s rights advocates, however, hope that a more liberal judiciary in Brazil will at least decriminalize abortion to help avoid deaths from botched terminations in a country where hundreds of thousands of women resort to clandestine clinics each year.

Ahead of the Senate vote in Argentina, President Mauricio Macri called the debate “a win for democracy.” Macri said he was personally against abortion, but would sign the bill if it passed.

“Regardless of the result, today, democracy wins,” Macri said ahead of the vote.

Argentina’s abortion rights movement, backed by feminist groups galvanized in recent years to stop violence against women, argued that the bill would end unregulated abortions that government data show as the leading cause of maternal deaths.

There are at least 350,000 illegal abortions in Argentina every year, the Ministry of Health estimates, though international human rights groups say the number may be higher, with dozens of women dying each year as a result.

Activists have estimated that since 1983, at more than 3,000 women in the country have died of illegal abortions.

The move to legalize abortion in Argentina is a “public health and human rights imperative,” said New York-based Human Rights Watch.

“Just because the bill got shot down, it will not stop the movement,” said Paula Avila-Guillen, a director of Women’s Equality Center, an abortion rights advocacy group. “We will be there at the next legislative opportunity.”

Pope Francis, who is from Argentina, denounced abortion earlier this year, calling it the “white glove” equivalent of the Nazi-era eugenics program. He urged families to “accept the children that God gives to them.”

Argentina became the first Latin American country to legalize same-sex marriage in 2010.

The movement Ni Una Menos, or Not One Less, was launched in the country in recent years to fight violence against women.</s>BUENOS AIRES - Argentina’s senators on Thursday voted against legalizing abortion in the homeland of Pope Francis, dashing the hopes of women’s rights groups after the bill was approved by the legislature’s lower house months earlier.

The vote, with 38 against, 31 in favor and two abstentions, capped a marathon session that began the day before and stretched into the early hours of Thursday. Fireworks and shouts of joy erupted among anti-abortion activists camped outside Congress, while pro-choice campaigners, many decked in the green scarves that had come to symbolize their movement, were downcast.

Some burnt garbage and wooden pallets and threw stones at riot police, who attempted to disperse them with tear gas and water cannon. The vote followed a referendum in Ireland, another traditionally Catholic country, in May that paved the way to legislate for the termination of fetuses. It also came after months of heated campaigns on the polarizing issue.

The bill was passed by Congress’s lower house in June by the narrowest of margins, but was widely expected to fall short of the votes needed to pass in the Senate.

Lawmakers must now wait a year to resubmit the legislation.

Miguel Angel Pichetto, a Peronist opposition leader in the Senate, said pro-abortion campaigners would not be giving up.

“The future does not belong to the “No” campaigners. Sooner rather than later, women will have the decision they need, sooner rather than later we will win this debate,” he said in his closing speech.

His sentiments were shared by 21-year-old Camila Sforza, who said she remained hopeful despite the setback.

“This is just the beginning - our movement will continue till we get the right to abortion,” she said.

The move was also condemned by Amnesty International, which said Argentina had squandered an historic opportunity.

“The Argentine lawmakers chose today to turn their backs on hundreds of thousands of women and girls who have been fighting for their sexual and reproductive rights,” said Mariela Belski, the group’s executive director for Argentina.

She added that the Senate had “therefore decided to agree on a system which forces women, girls and others who can become pregnant to undergo clandestine and unsafe abortions.”

But among anti-abortion activists, the mood was one of jubilation.

“We are happy because it is a celebration of democracy, the triumph of both lives,” said Ayelen Caffarena, echoing the campaign’s slogan, “save both lives”, a reference to the mother as well as the unborn child.

Earlier in the day, scores of buses had brought people from around the country into Buenos Aires for the dueling rallies outside Congress.

A partition was set up to keep the green-decked pro-abortion contingent separated from the anti-abortion activists who donned baby blue.

Currently, abortion is allowed in Argentina in only three cases, similar to most of Latin America: rape, a threat to the mother’s life or if the fetus is disabled.

The bill had sought to legalize abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy and would have seen Argentina join Uruguay and Cuba as the only countries in Latin America to fully decriminalize abortion.

It is also legal in Mexico City. Only in the Central American trio of El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua does it remain totally banned.

The prospect of legalization had energized women’s groups and still retains a huge support from citizens.

Rallies took place around the world in front of Argentine diplomatic missions, mainly in support of the bill.

Various charities estimate that 500,000 illegal, secret abortions are carried out every year in Argentina, resulting in around 100 deaths.

Opponents of abortion meanwhile held their own demonstrations.

Priests and nuns were joined by rabbis, imams and members of other Christian churches to oppose the bill.

One of them, Federico Berruete, a 35-year-old priest, joined anti-abortion demonstrators holding up slogans reading “Life starts at conception.”

With such division in the country, one lawmaker from the ruling party, Daniel Lipovetzky, suggested that the matter might end up being put to a referendum.

“It’s possible that we propose that,” he said.

Ireland ended up overturning its own constitutional ban on abortion through a referendum held in May. That dealt a hammer blow to the Catholic Church, which is as revered in Ireland as it is in Argentina.

In mid-June, Argentina’s lower house voted in favor of the bill by just 129 to 125, thanks in part to the anti-abortion President Mauricio Macri’s insistence on pushing the bill through the legislature.
The Argentine Senate rejects a bill that would have legalized abortion in Argentina.