Legal abortion in the Senate: the third public hearing began

The House of Senators began the third public hearing on the legalization of abortion until the 14th week of pregnancy. The invited speakers explain their favorable and unfavorable position before the health, justice and criminal affairs and constitutional affairs committees with the date of August 1st as a limit to sign or not the opinion which will arrive later on the site.

Menem lawyer and brother of former President Carlos Menem, journalists Eugenia Estenssoro and Mariano Obarrio and biologist Alberto Kornblihtt will be some of the speakers who will be presented on Tuesday.

] The Cost of Legalization of Abortion

In her presentation, economics graduate Sonia Tarragona said that is spent two and a half times more to cope with the consequences of illegal abortions than legalization. According to him, the attention of the consequences of illegal abortions has a minimum cost to the health system of 6.257 million dollars, in a calculation on 300 thousand procedures per year.

The data presented by the economist come from a study of the Health Economics Association . According to this document, alternative scenarios in a legalization context would entail costs for the system ranging from $ 1,800 to $ 2,500 million.

"Those Who Claim to Defend Both Lives Should Repeal Article 86"

Tense moment of debate, Radical Senator Inés Brizuela and Doria accused the attorney Paola Bergallo of trying to bring a "revealed truth" to the debate about legal and ironical abortion that she would like to "congratulate her, it seems that brings the panacea of ​​what you need to do ." It was after the lawyer considered that "those who intend to defend the two lives ended up defending a country in which women do not know if abortion is legal or not."

Bergallo, who was counselor of the program from 2006 to 2012 National Sexual Health, said that those opposed to abortion should have submitted a project to repeal the article 86 of the Penal Code which establishes the exceptions in which abortion is not punishable in case of rape and when the life of the mother is in danger and that this danger can not be avoided by d & rsquo; Other means. According to him, this rule created the obligation to guarantee the legal abortion service in public health.

"Perhaps because we do not fully understand the functioning of a constitutional democracy devoted to human rights, we have not understood that these rules generate rights." We manipulate ourselves as an anomic country and outside the law and we do not mount legal abortion services universally in all provinces or reform the mandatory medical plan or design a record Legal abortions that were made The radical senator arrived at the crossroads of his statements and questioned him about whether, if the criminalization of abortion was ineffective because it was not did not dissuade women, it would also be necessary to decriminalize human trafficking .In addition, he asked what social measures he was proposing to lower abortion rates and he considered that the informed consent should include options and the possibility of accompaniment in case the woman would choose the route of pregnancy.

because it seems that this brings us the panacea of ​​what needs to be done and also knows what we should do differently. This kind of revealed truth frightens me I fear that we would fall into such extreme positions, "he said, to which Bergallo replied," I do not think I'm talking about the l & rsquo; Absolute and would not underestimate women that they know that they can have children and abandon them for adoption laws that establish the duty to inform the right to give in adoption, a son underestimates the responsibility with which women take a pregnancy.

Pinedo: Against Legalization and in Favor of Decriminalization

For his part, the provisional Speaker of the Senate, Federico Pinedo, reiterated that he is against the legalization of abortion but defends decriminalization . In this line, he felt that the state "must give a hand" to women who find themselves in this situation.

The Senator from Cambiemos also questioned extremism in positions on the debate and clarified that that President Mauricio Macri gave was that legislators voted with "their own conscience and values ​​»

Controversy over questions about the financing of exhibitors

Beatriz Mirkin, Senatorialist of Tucumán, complains that her coprovinciana of Cambiemos Silvia Elías de Pérez asks the speakers who defend the abortion that finances them and said that "there are also senators who are funded to perform certain tasks".

The crossing took place after Elías de Pérez also consulted CONICET's lawyer, Paola Bergallo, whether she was receiving funds from the Planned Parenthood organization or from a subsidiary . According to the legislator, it is an organization that "executes the most gigantic affairs of abortion in the world and the sale of aborted children."

] "I did not remember to ask the Lord of the Catholic Church who came the other day it is funded by the State because it is indeed funded by the state, "Mirkin said. And he noticed that "the important guest exhibitors are what they think."

In the event that the commission report is signed, it is expected that the declaration which has a half-sanction in the deputies will be voted in the place on August 8 The project Legal abortion was approved in the lower house by 129 votes in favor, 125 against and one abstention.

The initiative legalizes the voluntary termination of pregnancy until week 14 of pregnancy, on the sole condition of the woman, it also provides that the practice is free and compulsory in all public and private health centers in the country, and, starting from week 15, allows abortion in case of rape, impossibility of ectopic life or health risk for women.

Tense crossing between journalist Mariano Obarrio and two senators

"I ask you not to call me neither a genocidal nor a murderer to vote according to my conscience," Senator Mirkin told Mariano Obarrio, who is against the decriminalization of abortion. "His staging that you are the" pro life "and that those who are in favor are the" pro death "is the greatest guarantee of dividing the Argentine people in two, "criticized the legislator, in turn questions after the reporter's exposure.

In response, Obarrio denied accusing him of being a murderer." What I believe is that you are a senator from a province like Tucumán, where most people think you have to defend both lives, I believe in representativeness, I think you should ask the people of Tucumán what they think "noted Obarrio

" Are you coming in the name of someone One or just represent Mariano Obarrio? " legislator Pamela Verasay later asked the reporter. "I represent many organizations that defend life, I did not ask to come in. They invited me in. Life has led me to become a kind of spokesperson because I believe in the cause, "says Obarrio in a hot environment.

News in the process of being updated . –