Argentina legalises abortion

There are 8 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 1,486 times. The latest Post () was by serafina.

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    The senate last night voted in favour of legalising abortion up to 14 weeks, thus placing the country as only one of four South American countries where it is legal.

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    Only Uruguay, Cuba and Guyana allow voluntary terminations in South America, which has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world. In El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, it is banned, and women can be sentenced to jail even for having a miscarriage. In Argentina, terminations were allowed in only two instances: rape, and danger to the mother's life.

    Deep down, I'm pro-life but at the same time I'm a realist. Back street abortions will happen regardless and we all know how dangerous they can be for the woman.

    I'm also pro-choice, but I certainly believe that the father should have a say in the matter, if he can be found. I've had my fair share of robust discussions with groups of women regarding fathers and let's just say that they all ended in an impasse.

    I share your attitude, Splinter . I am pro-life in the sense that I believe all life is sacred: not just fetuses, but living humans.


    But thinking that keeping abortions illegal will save lives seems to be wishful thinking, because in any case, women who have decided on an abortion will have one, whether legal or not. In either case, the fetus will die; in the case of legal abortions the mother has a far better chance of not dying (Bonus: and potentially being able to continue to care for any other children in the family)


    To quote Bill Clinton, I would prefer that abortions be legal, safe and rare.

    Most people are pro-life .


    But the lack of proper education means that some people get pregnant and they either didn't know or didn't understand what was happening. Abortion is not a panacea or a form of contraception but sometimes it is necessary to help people out of situations that would kill them psychologically.


    Proper sex education is a must and it still doesn't happen in many countries. Argentina is one of those countries.

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    Some months ago, when life was still normal, I was discussing this face to face with an Argentinian lady friend about my age. She told me that at her school, sed-ex was 2-3 classes at the age of 12, held by nuns. Their teaching was pretty simple: abstain!


    Definitely the discussion over abortion is stilted: those who are against it think that it is an easy fix for scantily dressed bourgeois girls who like to party hard and think they should not be granted this 'caprice'. They lack to understand that with abortion people with limited resources are given a chance.


    I have my reservation that abortion will change things for the better for all of the poors. First of all, if someone doesn't know how they got pregnant, I doubt they can understand symptoms of pregnancy and seek medical help. Second, the level of medical help they may have access to is definitely not the best and I am not sure they can get a safe abortion anyway. Third, abortion was already legal in case of violations, but in Argentina it was de facto made impossible by delaying the administrative and medical process as much as possible. So even if it is now legal, the chances of it actually happening are still slim for some people.


    I also think it is unlikely that someone who cannot take control of their life will actually go through the hardest route consciously.

    On La Nación there was a piece about a guy who talked on camera to his mother who had TEN kids, asking her if she would have aborted some if abortion were legal. And the mother named a few names of 'unwanted' children. He was outraged because he loves his siblings and used his mother's answer to make a point about how making abortion legal was 'damaging to people'. Instead, he should have asked himself how it is possible that his mother got pregnant ten times... basically, all her fertile life she spent it pregnant.

    Quote from serafina

    On La Nación there was a piece about a guy who talked on camera to his mother who had TEN kids, asking her if she would have aborted some if abortion were legal. And the mother named a few names of 'unwanted' children. He was outraged because he loves his siblings and used his mother's answer to make a point about how making abortion legal was 'damaging to people'.

    Guessing that this surely would have been the kind of family group that ignored public health pleas not to combine extended-family households for Christmas gatherings, I’d bet there were some rather painful discussions over their Christmas dinner! Especially if alcohol was involved.