Argentina legalises abortion in Catholic-majority country; landmark victory for women's rights

In a historic win, Argentina's Senate on Wednesday legalized abortion paving way for millions of women to access legal terminations in the Catholic-majority and socially conservative nation. The Senate voted 38-29 in favor of the bill.

The long fight for abortion rights

This is seen as a significant victory for women rights activists against the long-dominated Roman Catholic Church of Argentina who had suggested the Senate "No" to passing such a law.

People in favour of a bill to legalise abortion react after the lower house of Congress passed the law.Courtesy: Reuters

But in recent months, the abortion rights movement had gained huge momentum and had also got the support of President Alberto Fernández, who came to power last December. The college professor turned President Fernandez had an abortion and gender equality rights as his political campaign promise, which he acted upon by bringing the bill in the senate this early in his tenure.

The high stakes vote in the senate had gripped the entire nation as members of both the groups requested their respective factions to support their stand in the Senate. And after an emotional hearing, the decision was reached in favor of legalizing abortion.

Rare victory in a conservative country 

The law will legalize abortion in all cases up to 14 weeks of pregnancy. Until now, abortion was only allowed in specific cases - rape or if the pregnancy endangers the life or health of the woman. Other than these circumstances, abortion was illegal and carried a jail term of 15 years.

With this new law, Argentina has joined a small group of Latin American nations that legally allow abortion. In the Caribbean region, only Cuba, Uruguay, French Guiana, and Guyana allow for legal abortions.

Argentina President Alberto FernándezReuters

By contrast, most of the countries in the region either completely ban abortion or allow it only to preserve women's health. The Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Nicaragua do not allow abortion in any case.

Deaths due to abortion-related complications

While abortion remained illegal or restricted in most of the region, approximately 5.4 million women went for abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean islands between 2015 to 2019, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Even by Argentinian government data around 40,000 women were hospitalized for complications related to abortion of which 65 died in 2016.

Supporters of abortion rights believe that the legalization will simply bring the practice out of the shadow and would stem unwanted pregnancies in teenage girls and women.

Pope Francis on legal abortion 

How big this decision is could be also understood from the fact that Pope Francis had supported pro-life groups and had even messaged Senate members who were either undecided or supported anti-abortion to vote against the bill.

It's a landmark decision from various points including the reality that this decision is coming in a country where 92 percent of the population associate with Christianity.

Celebrating the legalization many got their eyes welled up remembering their female friends, family, and colleagues who lost their lives to unsafe abortion.

The new law will allow them to fear no more and get the abortion done safely.