Argentina: Abortion Supporters Hopeful of Authorization

Text by: RFI Follow

Tens of thousands of people gathered on Wednesday February 19 in front of the Congress in Buenos Aires. Parliamentarians will debate in the coming weeks the legalization of the voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG).

Publicity

With our correspondent in Buenos Aires, Aude Villiers-Moriamé

The Place du Congrès is full of demonstrators dressed in green, the color symbol of the right to abortion. Thousands of them have come to demand, ten days before the opening of parliamentary sessions, that the right to abortion be voted in 2020. Currently in Argentina, abortion is only authorized in the event of rape or if pregnancy endangers the health of pregnant women.

► Read also: Argentina: the debate on the right to abortion revived

Lucia Mancuso is 20 years old, she is one of the many young women who mobilized this Wednesday: " I think we are late on the subject of abortion in Argentina, because many people continue to think that this decision is not only for women. The choice to be a mother, to have a child ... No one should make this decision for women! "

After the cold shower caused by the rejection, in the Senate, with seven votes, of the legalization of abortion in August 2018, the activists are determined that the law passes this year. The new president Alberto Fernandez is also on their side and his center-left government will soon introduce a bill going in this direction.

Laura Maqui, 38, with a green scarf tied on her wrist, welcomes it: “ The situation is different from that of 2018. Today we have real representatives of the people again, and we believe that all the conditions are met for that we are moving forward positively on this subject. "

In October 2019, a third of the seats in the Senate and half of those in the Chamber of Deputies were renewed. Simulations by Argentinian newspapers show that if the legalization of abortion continues to be approved by MPs, the vote still risks being extremely tight in the Senate.

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