Victory for Argentina’s women as abortion charges are dropped

Hundreds of criminal cases could be halted following landmark change in legislation

Amy Booth in Buenos Aires
Sun 10 Jan 2021

Argentina has announced it will drop criminal charges against women accused of having abortions following the government’s historic decision to legalise the procedure.

The announcement offers hope to the mostly poor and marginalised women facing criminal sanctions. But lingering problems such as obstetric violence and sexism in the justice system show the struggle for reproductive justice is not over, according to campaigners.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/10/victory-for-argentinas-women-as-abortion-charges-are-dropped

Argentina must legalize abortion so doctors like me don’t have to choose between helping or going to prison

Opinion by Cecilia Ousset
Dec. 28, 2020

I am a Catholic doctor, mother of four and a
conscientious objector to abortion who has been trying to reconcile her
religious views with public health needs. Because the reality that I see every
day is that all women have abortions. The married woman and the single one, the
Catholic, the Jewish, the atheist. Women who do not use birth control and those
whose birth control has failed them. Illiterate women and those with college
degrees.

The difference, however, is in the conditions under which they have abortions.
That’s always defined by their economic status.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/12/28/argentina-legal-abortion-senate-vote/

Argentina moves closer to historic abortion legalization

A pro-abortion movement, symbolized by a green handkerchief, has swept through Latin America, where abortion is punishable by law

Uki Goñi
Wed 9 Dec 2020

Belén ended up in jail after suffering a spontaneous miscarriage. Unaware that she was pregnant, the 25-year-old went to seek medical care at a hospital in Argentina’s northern province of Tucumán when she suffered abdominal pain.

In accordance with Argentina’s stringent anti-abortion legislation, Belén (not her real name) was reported by the hospital to the authorities and sentenced to eight years in prison for homicide. She did not regain her freedom until almost three years later, in 2017, after a feminist lawyer who took up her case convinced the Tucumán supreme court to overturn her conviction.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/dec/09/argentina-legalize-abortion-bill-congress-vote

Pro-choice groups push Argentine President to keep abortion promise

BALA CHAMBERS
Oct 26, 2020

Earlier this year, the Argentinian President had promised to send an abortion bill to Congress. Now, despite the pandemic and opposition from religious sectors, pro-choice activists want him to follow up on his pledge to legalise abortion.

In 2014 Belen, a woman in her late 20s in northern Argentina’s Tucumán, went to hospital severely haemorrhaging. She was later sentenced to eight years in prison, after a court said she had an abortion. But Belén always insisted her innocence, saying she had suffered a miscarriage. The initial court ruling was later overturned. After a two year jail sentence, Belen was freed.

Continued: https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/pro-choice-groups-push-argentine-president-to-keep-abortion-promise-40916

Argentina’s leftist president-elect reignites abortion debate

Argentina's leftist president-elect reignites abortion debate

Issued on: 23/11/2019
Buenos Aires (AFP)

The inauguration of Argentina's president-elect Alberto Fernandez next month has reignited a debate over the legalization of abortion, a year after conservatives narrowly blocked its decriminalization, leaving the country bitterly divided over the issue.

Fernandez, a leftist Peronist, pledged last week he would move to legalize abortion as soon as the new government takes over on December 10.

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/20191123-argentina-s-leftist-president-elect-reignites-abortion-debate

Argentina – How Doctors And The Church Conspired To Stop An 11-Year-Old Girl From Having An Abortion After Rape

How Doctors And The Church Conspired To Stop An 11-Year-Old Girl From Having An Abortion After Rape
Lucía was raped at 11. Her family’s demands for a legal abortion became the center of a global firestorm — and she still doesn’t know the whole story.

Karla Zabludovsky, BuzzFeed News Reporter
San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina
Posted on April 13, 2019

SAN MIGUEL DE TUCUMÁN, Argentina — Lucía sat up in her hospital bed as the priest made the sign of the cross on her forehead, the 11-year-old’s bulging belly visible underneath her pajama shirt.

“Think long and hard about what you’re considering doing,” Lucía’s mother remembered the priest telling them. “Save both lives,” he said.

Lucía wasn’t sure what the priest was talking about. She only knew her grandmother’s partner had done something bad to her and now she had a terrible stomachache.

Continued: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/karlazabludovsky/argentina-lucia-catholic-church-abortion

13.04.2019

Catholics for the Right to Decide

Cecilia Ousset

Cladem

conscientious objector

María Teresa Mockevich

María Teresita Villavicencio

Mauricio Macri

misoprostol

National Program for Adolescent Integral Health

The arc of moral progress may be long, but Argentina’s women will prevail

The arc of moral progress may be long, but Argentina’s women will prevail

By Jon O'Brien, opinion contributor
08/16/18

Last week’s vote in Argentina’s Senate — which struck down the chance to legalize abortion — was a disappointment for millions of Argentinians and reproductive rights advocates around the world.

But it was also an outcome that is not easily explained away. As we saw in Chile, my native Ireland and Argentina, many Catholic majority countries are opening up about their faith, the ethics of choice and what it means to trust women like never before. Argentina’s unprecedented debate has emboldened a movement for women’s equality and dignity in the country, and the hemisphere, that is unstoppable.

Continued: http://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/402176-the-arc-of-moral-progress-may-be-long-but-argentinas-women-will-prevail

How ‘conscientious objectors’ threaten women’s newly-won abortion rights in Latin America

How ‘conscientious objectors’ threaten women’s newly-won abortion rights in Latin America
From Uruguay to Chile, medical staff are refusing to provide abortion services even after their legalisation.

Diana Cariboni
18 July 2018

Women’s rights to legal abortion have increased in Latin America – but so have campaigns and policies for medical staff to be able to ‘conscientiously object’ and refuse to participate in these procedures.

“We didn’t see it coming,” said feminist activist Lilián Abracinskas in Uruguay, a secular country where abortion, same-sex marriage and the marijuana market were each legalised in the last decade.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/diana-cariboni/conscientious-objectors-threaten-abortion-rights-latin-america

Argentina bans abortion in most cases. So why is its abortion rate far higher than that of the U.S.?

Argentina bans abortion in most cases. So why is its abortion rate far higher than that of the U.S.?
By Sarah Parvini
Oct 29, 2017

The woman stumbled into a public hospital late one night, her stomach turning as she approached the lobby. She was bleeding.

Dr. Damian Levy ushered her into a room. Like many of his patients at Hospital Alvarez in Buenos Aires, she was young and poor. At first, she refused to tell him why she was there.

Then she burst into a tearful confession. She had tried to perform her own abortion at home and used 40 tablets of the drug misoprostol — nearly three times the suggested dosage for inducing a miscarriage. She was worried that the hospital would report her to police.

Continued at source: http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-argentina-abortion-20171029-htmlstory.html

Argentina: “Belén” acquitted: Tucumán Provincial Supreme Court overturns sentence for aggravated homicid

STOP PRESS: ARGENTINA “Belén” acquitted: Tucumán Provincial Supreme Court overturns sentence for aggravated homicide
by Safe Abortion
March 31, 2017

In 2014, “Belén”, a 27-year-old woman from the province of Tucumán went to her local hospital with a serious vaginal haemorrhage. The duty doctor diagnosed a spontaneous miscarriage, but “Belén” was accused of having disposed of the fetus in a hospital washroom. She was tried and sentenced to eight years in jail for aggravated homicide in a trial riddled with irregularities. She spent more than two years in prison until August 2016, when the Tucumán Supreme Court ordered her release after a long-running, nationwide campaign. Seven months later, the Court has now acquitted her due to the absence of evidence against her.

In overturning the lower court’s decision, the provincial Supreme Court highlighted the importance of patient confidentiality, the rights of women who have undergone an abortion and the right of women to be treated with dignity and not subjected to violence.

Her lawyer, Soledad Deza, told El País, that the ruling will set a precedent that will help to prevent other women from being treated as she was: “This ruling provides justice twice over: for Belén and all other women who do not want to be mothers who have a spontaneous or induced abortion. I believe this ruling will encourage women to use the public health system because they now know they will not be arrested when they leave.” She said Belén is also considering whether to bring legal action against the state for the time she has lost, the violation of her rights, the loss of her freedom and for changing the course of her life.

SOURCE: El País, 28 March 2017 (in English) ; Absuelta una joven argentina que estuvo dos años presa por un aborto (en español) ; PHOTO

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Source: International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/stop-press-argentina-belen-acquitted-tucuman-provincial-supreme-court-overturns-sentence-for-aggravated-homicide/

31.03.2017