The pro-abortion crusade in Argentina

The pro-abortion crusade in Argentina

Angello Alcázar
Nov 1, 2018

“’Better’ never means better for everyone… It always means worse for some.” We can find this poignant statement in a passage from Margaret Atwood’s book, The Handmaid’s Tale. This best-known work of fiction is one of the most enthralling dystopian novels ever written. Just like George Orwell’s 1984 or Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, the plot revolves around an ill-fated society in which citizens are subject to a totalitarian regime that has deprived them of their fundamental rights, including freedom. In The Handmaid’s Tale, however, there is neither Orwell’s omnipresent Big Brother, nor Bradbury’s “firemen” that burn books. Rather, at the heart of Atwood’s novel, a theocratic and puritan state treats the few fertile women that remain in Gilead territory (the ‘handmaids’) as mere incubators in order to ensure the survival of the nightmarish social regime.

Continued: https://www.mironline.ca/the-pro-abortion-crusade-in-argentina/

Latin America’s Rights Riddle

Latin America’s Rights Riddle
Why the region says yes to same-sex marriage and no to abortion.

By Omar G. Encarnación
August 27, 2018

In Latin America, progressive politics present something of a mystery: As LGBT rights have flourished, women’s reproductive rights have floundered. Earlier this month, for example, a bill to legalize abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy was defeated in the Argentine Senate. This is the same body that in 2010 made Argentina the first Latin American country to legalize same-sex marriage with identical rights to heterosexual marriage. And since that historic milestone, Argentina has enacted one of the most liberal laws on gender identity to be found anywhere in the world. Its code allows people to change the gender listed on their legal documents without a diagnosis of gender dysphoria or permission from a judge, as is required in most countries. The country has also granted same-sex couples reproductive rights, such as access to in vitro fertilization under the national health plan, and has banned programs that aim to “cure” same-sex attraction.

Continued: https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/08/27/latin-americas-rights-riddle/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_todayworld

27.08.2018

Commentary

Featured

#NiUnaMenos

Amnesty International

Argentine Conference of Bishops

Breaking the Silence: Human Rights Violations Based on Sexual Orientation

Catholic Church

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

in-vitro fertilization

Inter-American Court of Human Rights

International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission

Outright Action International

Pedro Guastavino

pinkwashing

Pope Francis

President Mauricio Macri

Argentina’s women have not been beaten on abortion – change will come

Argentina’s women have not been beaten on abortion – change will come
The ‘senadores percha’ who voted against legalisation have won a hollow victory but cannot stand in the way of progress

Claudia Piñeiro
Fri 10 Aug 2018

Argentina’s senators could not understand what was being debated: legal abortion or clandestine abortion? Or they did not want to understand? Thirty-eight senators voted for the absolute rejection of a bill to allow legal termination, without showing any willingness to introduce changes or improve the proposals. They simply said “no” – as if they were judges instead of legislators. They showed an arrogant attitude, absolutely detached from a reality in Argentina where there are women who die every year from complications arising after clandestine abortions.

To reject the bill, they pronounced all kind of barbarities from their seats: proclaiming that they were saving embryos, without explaining how, and even suggesting that intrafamily rape does not imply violence.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/10/argentina-women-abortion-hollow-senate-victory

They Lost Argentina’s Abortion Vote, but Advocates Started a Movement

They Lost Argentina’s Abortion Vote, but Advocates Started a Movement

By Daniel Politi and Ernesto Londoño
Aug. 9, 2018

BUENOS AIRES — They narrowly lost the vote. But as supporters of a bill to legalize abortion in Argentina began to shake off a stinging defeat in the Senate on Thursday, they took consolation in having galvanized a reproductive-rights movement across Latin America and began to consider how to redirect their activism.

A coalition of young female lawmakers who stunned the political establishment by putting abortion rights at the top of the legislative agenda this year seemed to be on the verge of a historic victory with the bill. But intense lobbying by Catholic Church leaders and staunch opposition in conservative northern provinces persuaded enough senators to vote against it.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/world/americas/argentina-abortion-laws-south-america.html

09.08.2018

abortion rights activists

Adolfo Rubenstein

Benjamin Gedan

Catholic Church

Center for Legal and Social Studies

Center for the Promotion and Defense of Sexual and Reproductive Rights

Center for the Study of State and Society

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

Debora Diniz

decriminalization of abortion

International Women's Health Coalition

President Mauricio Macri

pro-choice campaigners

Susana Chávez

violence against women

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Argentina holds historic abortion vote as 1m women rally to demand change

Argentina holds historic abortion vote as 1m women rally to demand change
Senate votes on bill opposed by Catholic church and pope that would legalise abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy

Uki Goñi in Buenos Aires
Wed 8 Aug 2018

Ana María Acevedo was a 19-year-old housemaid and already the mother of three children when she was diagnosed with cancer of the jaw.

Her prognosis took a turn for the worse when doctors discovered she was two weeks pregnant, and cancelled her scheduled chemotherapy sessions.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/aug/07/argentina-abortion-vote-legalisation-senate-mass-rally

Argentine abortion bill loses momentum after senator pulls support

Argentine abortion bill loses momentum after senator pulls support

August 07 2018
Reuters/Buenos Aires

Prospects faded over the weekend for a bill that would legalise abortion in Argentina, when an opposition senator said she had changed her mind and would vote against the measure when it is brought to the floor on Wednesday. The proposal, which would expand abortion rights beyond current laws that allow the procedure only in cases of rape or when the mother’s health is at risk, passed the lower house last month by 129 votes to 125.

Since then religious activists, particularly in rural parts of the country, have pushed back against the measure, which is backed by feminists and rights groups galvanised in recent years by efforts to stop violence against women. The bill would make Argentina the third country in Latin American to broadly legalise abortion, after Uruguay and Cuba.

Continued: http://www.gulf-times.com/story/602034/Argentine-abortion-bill-loses-momentum-after-senator-pulls-support

‘Handmaid’s Tale’ march for Argentine abortion rights

‘Handmaid’s Tale’ march for Argentine abortion rights

by Debora Rey
AP July 25 2018

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Dozens of demonstrators wearing red cloaks and white bonnets like the characters from the novel-turned-TV series “The Handmaid’s Tale” demonstrated Wednesday in Argentina in favor of legalizing abortion.

The demonstrators marched in silence with their heads bowed through the streets of the Argentine capital until they reached the Congress building. Under a heavy rain, one of them read a letter by “Handmaid’s Tale” author Margaret Atwood, who supports the effort led by Argentine feminist groups.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/handmaids-tale-march-for-argentine-abortion-rights/2018/07/25/5029a4fc-9042-11e8-ae59-01880eac5f1d_story.html?utm_term=.c4d867b85164

Argentina: The Handmaid’s Tale Author Backs Abortion Rights

Argentina: The Handmaid's Tale Author Backs Abortion Rights
Margaret Atwood urged VP Gabriela Michetti, a staunch detractor of legalizing abortion, to ask herself if she wants to live in a country where "half the population is enslaved."

Published 13 July 2018

Activists in Argentina who are are fighting for access to legal, safe and free abortions up to the 14th week of pregnancy have gained a new international ally: Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, most popular for her TV-series-adapted novel The Handmaid's Tale.

In a recent letter to local newspaper UNO Santa Fe, Atwood shared her opinion on the comments made by Argentina’s Vice President and president of the Senate Gabriela Michetti regarding Atwood’s tweets, which urged the Senate to uphold women’s rights and support the legalization of abortion.

Continued: https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Argentina-The-Handmaids-Tale-Author-Backs-Abortion-20180713-0006.html

Argentina’s Senate Will Vote on Abortion Bill on August 8

Argentina's Senate Will Vote on Abortion Bill on August 8

Published 28 June 2018

After intense negotiations the bill legalizing abortions will be reviewed by three, and not four commissions in the senate.

Leaders of the legislative blocs in the Argentine Senate agreed they will vote on the bill to legalize elective abortions within the first 14 weeks of pregnancy on Aug. 8. The bill was approved by the lower chamber of Congress on June 14.

On Wednesday the Senate also determined the number of commissions that will review the bill after negotiations between the Senate’s president and Vice President Gabriela Michetti, who opposes the bill, and supporter of it Miguel Pinchetto, leader of the Federal Argentina parliamentary bloc.

Continued: https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Argentinas-Senate-Will-Vote-on-Abortion-Bill-on-August-8-20180628-0009.html

28.06.2018

President Mauricio Macri

Author Margaret Atwood tells Argentina’s VP: ‘Give women the right to choose abortion’

Author Margaret Atwood tells Argentina's VP: 'Give women the right to choose abortion'
Atwood addressed Gabriella Michetti following accusations last week that the vice-president was trying to hinder a vote in the Senate on the bill to decriminalise elective abortion.

June 26, 2018

Beloved Canadian writer Margaret Atwood has expressed her support for the ongoing campaign in Argentina to decriminalise elective abortion, with a personal message for Vice-President Gabriela Michetti.

“Vicepresident of Argentina @gabimichetti: don’t look away from the thousands of deaths every year from ilegal abortions. Give argentinian women the right to choose!”, Atwood wrote on Twitter, citing the hashtags of the #NiUnaMenos movement and those in favour of abortion like #AbortoLegalYa #QueElAbortoSeaLey and #AbortoEnSenadoYa.

Continued: http://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/author-margaret-atwood-tells-argentinas-vp-give-women-the-right-to-choose-abortion.phtml