Senate in Argentina vote down abortion decriminalisation bill

Senate in Argentina vote down abortion decriminalisation bill

The Argentine senate has voted against a bill that would have decriminalised abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. Senators voted 38-31 against the measure last week following a 15-hour debate. The measure had been approved in June by the lower house of Congress.

The Argentine bishops’ conference hailed the vote, saying the debate in the country opened an opportunity for dialogue and a chance to focus more on social ministry.

The senate debate revealed deep divisions in Argentina, where support for decriminalising abortion drew stronger support in Buenos Aires, the capital, than in the more conservative provinces. Observers attributed that difference to the bill being voted down in the senate, which includes more representation from outlying areas.

The vote came as a movement of women and supporters of the measure – wearing green handkerchiefs – filled the streets outside the congress as voting occurred. Catholics, meanwhile, celebrated the Eucharist.

View points

“Everyone had time to express their viewpoints and be heard by legislators in a healthy democratic exercise. But the only ones that didn’t have an opportunity to make themselves heard are the human beings that struggled to be born,” Cardinal Mario Poli, Pope Francis’ successor in Buenos Aires, said on August 8 in his homily at what organisers called a ‘Mass for Life’.

In an acknowledgment that the Church could be doing more to work with women, Cardinal Poli said: “We have done little to accompany the women when they find themselves in tough situations, particularly when the (pregnancy) is the result of rape or situations of extreme poverty.”

In a statement after the vote, the bishops’ conference said it was time to address the “new divisions developing between us…through a renewed exercise of dialogue.