Legal abortion: agree on a new project, with a limit of 14 weeks and without conscientious objection

The National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe and Free Abortion has approved the text of the new plan for the legal interruption of pregnancy, which will be presented in the coming weeks in Congress and will correspond to the average sanction of the Chamber of Deputies .

This means it will be a more ambitious proposal than the one proposed in the Senate, which has reduced the maximum number of weeks of gestation to perform unsafe abortions and guaranteed conscientious objection.

The new articles were approved at a plenary meeting held at the Faculty of Psychology of the National University of Córdoba (UNC), which was attended by 190 leaders of the campaign's 30 regions of the country of this group green organizations. months of deliberations, working days of up to ten hours.

As you may have known The voice, the text declares the legal abortion without cause until the 14th week of pregnancy, the same limit which fixed the average sanction of the lower house.

On the other hand, in the Upper House, on the proposal of the three senators of Córdoba – Laura Rodríguez Machado and Ernesto Martínez (of Cambiemos) and the lawyer Carlos Caserio – this ceiling was reduced to 12 weeks.

In any case, the initiative currently approved in Córdoba is not a copy of the average sanction of deputies; There are also differences.

For example, it excludes fetal malformations incompatible with an ectopic life (anencephaly, when it knows that the baby will be born dead or will die a few days after birth) as a cause of termination of pregnancy at beyond the limit of 14 weeks.

This case was included in the average sanction and was now excluded to avoid the questions of anti-abortionists, who accused their green rivals of ryegrbad to promote "elimination" of disabled people.

In addition, the consensual proposal does not consider conscientious objection, which is also included in the average penalty for taking into account cases in which doctors, for reasons of faith, are exempted from # 39; abortion.

In the campaign, they understand that conscientious objection impedes the exercise of badual and reproductive rights. The new text does not mention the conscientious objection.

The new proposal requires an amendment motivated by the Senate: the editorial board sentenced the doctors who performed an abortion after week 14 without any reason for rape or risk of death for the pregnant woman, but this was left to side.

The penalty imposed on doctors was approved with the average penalty imposed on deputies and many senators, like the Cordovan Martinez, felt that it was a barbarity.

Difficult year

Although the Greens are trying again, this year's expectations for a debate in Congress on this new legal abortion project are low: last year the initiative received a historic average penalty among MPs (it was approved by 129 deputies). voting against 125 and the abstention of the Cordoba judge, Alejandra Vigo), but rejected in the Senate (38 against 31 and two abstentions), and as the two chambers still have the same composition, the result would inevitably be similar.

In addition, this is a year of parliamentary renewal and of national and provincial government authorities, so that politics moves from the institutions to the territory: in the course of the election years, the number of congressional sessions is reduced by at least half.

Moreover, the legalization of abortion is an issue that divides public opinion and politics. Congress leaders coincide, noting that there is no room or political climate to discuss it again this year.

In any case, the Campaign has indicated that, even if the problem does not happen on the site, it is necessary to keep it on the agenda.

"As part of the elections to be held this year, candidates are required to give their opinion on the legalization of voluntary abortion," the campaign said in his statement.

In 2018, with a record number, the Campaign gained the support of 72 MPs with their signatures to the project, out of a total of 257. In the previous presentation, in 2016, it had 36 signatures. This year will be the eighth attempt since the creation of this group of green organizations.