Bala Chambers
15 January 2021•Update: 15 January 2021
LONDON
Argentine President Alberto Fernandez signed an abortion bill into law Thursday, allowing terminations in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.
The event was held at the Museo del Bicentenario de la Casa Rosada in the nation's capital, Buenos Aires, and attended by government officials and activists, some of whom waved green handkerchiefs which have become synonymous with the feminist pro-choice movement.
"Today is a day of happiness for all, because we are making a more egalitarian and just society and we did it together. For me, it is a day of happiness and something more because I kept my word. I campaigned saying that I was going to work for this law, and today we achieved it," said Fernandez.
"Today for many women it is the culmination of a time of struggle. For many years, they fought for abortion to stop being a crime.”
Fernandez also thanked both legislators from his own party and the opposition.
On Dec. 30, Argentina's Congress voted to legalize elective abortion in the first 14 weeks of gestation as the Senate backed the bill two years after rejecting a similar one.
Argentina becomes the largest nation in Latin America to permit legal abortions alongside Cuba, Uruguay, Guyana and parts of Mexico.
Following a 1921 law, abortion had only been permitted in cases of rape or when there was a risk to the woman's life.
According to government data, since 1983, over 3,000 women have died due to clandestine practices, with more than 370,000 clandestine abortions taking place per year.
