'This is not over': Argentina's Senate rejects bill to legalize abortion

Argentine senators rejecteda bill to legalize abortion after an impassioned debate ran intothe early hours of Thursday, pushing back against a groundswellof 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 abortioninto the 14th week of pregnancy. The bill had narrowly passed inthe lower house in July.

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

Just because the bill got shot down, it will not stop the movement. We will be there at the next legislative opportunity.- Paula Avila-Guillen, Women's Equality Center

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

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

Abortion rights supporters, clad in green bandanas that havebecome a symbol of the movement, danced to drum lines andswarmed the city's streets to the end, despite a biting wind andcold rain.

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

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

Restrictions across region

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

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

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

Women's rights advocates, however, hope that a more liberaljudiciary in Brazil will at least decriminalize abortion to helpavoid deaths from botched terminations in a country wherehundreds of thousands of women resort to clandestine clinicseach year.

Ahead of the Senate vote in Argentina, President MauricioMacri called the debate "a win for democracy." Macri said he waspersonally against abortion, but would sign the bill if itpassed.

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

There are at least 350,000 illegal abortions in Argentinaevery 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 "publichealth and human rights imperative," said New York-based HumanRights Watch.

"Just because the bill got shot down, it will not stop themovement," said Paula Avila-Guillen, a director of Women's Equality Center, an abortion rights advocacy group. "We will bethere at the next legislative opportunity."