Argentine Senate approves historic bill legalizing abortion

Argentina's Senate passed a law legalizing abortion early Wednesday after a marathon 12-hour session, a victory for the women's movement that has been fighting for the right for decades.

The vote means that abortion will be legalized in Pope Francis' homeland up to the 14th week of pregnancy, and also will be legal after that time in cases of rape or danger to the mother's life. It will have repercussions across a continent where the procedure is largely illegal.

The measure was passed with 38 votes in favour, 29 against and one abstention, after a session that began late Tuesday.

It was already approved by Argentina's Chamber of Deputies and has the support of President Alberto Fernandez, meaning the Senate vote was its final hurdle.

Argentina will be the largest Latin American country to legalize abortion and the vote was being closely watched. With the exceptions of Uruguay, Cuba, Mexico City, Mexico's Oaxaca state, the Antilles and French Guiana, abortion remains largely illegal across the region.

Argentina until now has penalized women and those who help them abort. The only exceptions were cases involving rape or a risk to the health of the mother, and activists complain even these exceptions are not respected in some provinces.

Just hours before the Senate session began Tuesday, the pope weighed in, tweeting: "The Son of God was born an outcast, in order to tell us that every outcast is a child of God. He came into the world as each child comes into the world, weak and vulnerable, so that we can learn to accept our weaknesses with tender love."

A previous abortion bill was voted down by Argentine lawmakers in 2018, but this time it was backed by the centre-left government. The outcome of the latest vote, however, had still been considered uncertain. That was partly due to the fact that the political parties, including the governing Peronist movement, gave their legislators freedom to vote as they chose. Two of the 72 senators were absent, and 43 of the remaining 70 senators were men.

Outside the Senate, pro- and anti-abortion activists gathered, with the bill's supporters wearing the colour green that represents their pro-abortion movement.

Argentina's feminist movement has been demanding legal abortion for more than 30 years and activists say the bill's approval could mark a watershed in Latin America, where the Roman Catholic Church's influence has long dominated.

"Our country is a country of many contradictions," said Ester Albarello, a psychiatrist with a network of health professionals that supports the bill, who was among the demonstrators outside the congressional building. "It is the only one in the world that brought members of its genocidal military dictatorship to justice with all the guarantees. But we still don't have legal abortion. Why? Because the church is together with the state."

Also outside the legislature, a group that calls its members "defenders of the two lives" set up an altar with a crucifix under a blue tent. Dressed in a white smock and light-blue face mask, teacher Adriana Broni said that even if the abortion law won approval, "I will not teach that it is a right to kill, murder, a baby who has no voice."

Supporters said the bill seeks to eradicate the clandestine abortions that have caused more than 3,000 deaths in the country since 1983, according to figures from authorities.

In addition to allowing abortion within the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, the legislation also will establish that even after that period, a pregnancy can be legally terminated if it was the result of rape or if the person's life or integral health was in danger.

It will allow conscientious refusal to participate in an abortion for health professionals and private medical institutions at which all doctors are against the procedure. But they will be required to refer the woman to another medical centre. Conscientious objection also could not be claimed if a pregnant woman's life or health was in danger.