2023-09-29 07:44:00
Several thousand Argentines demonstrated Thursday to defend the right to abortion, legal in the country for three years, but “in danger”, many of them believe in the event of victory of the ultraliberal and anti-abortion candidate for the presidency. October presidential election, Javier Milei.
The demonstration, predominantly green, a color that has become a symbol of the fight for abortion, traveled through the center of Buenos Aires from the Plaza de Mayo, seat of the presidency, to the Parliament, to mark World Day for the Right to abortion.
“We are coming together to defend women’s rights, because we fear a setback, depending on the outcome of the elections,” said Martha Gazzano, a 47-year-old psychologist, walking alongside her 15-year-old daughter.
Javier Milei, a 52-year-old ultra-liberal and libertarian economist, shook up Argentine politics by arriving in mid-August at the top of the presidential primary, a sort of “dress rehearsal” for the October 22 election.
To date, he is leading the voting intentions and would contest a second round against Sergio Massa, Minister of the Economy and candidate of the government coalition (center-left).
Javier Milei has repeatedly expressed his opposition to abortion, which he describes as “assassination aggravated by ascendant”. “Obviously the woman has the rights to her body, but the child is not her body,” he believes.
However, he indicated that he would defer to a referendum if he were elected president.
Argentina legalized abortion up to the 14th week in January 2021. In Latin America, abortion was only authorized in Cuba and Uruguay, pioneer countries, and more recently in Colombia and Mexico.
In Brazil, a country of 203 million inhabitants, the Supreme Court has begun to examine an appeal calling for the decriminalization of abortion up to the twelfth week of pregnancy, as abortion is only authorized in rare exceptions in this very country. religious, notably with a rise in evangelical churches.
Rallies for the right to abortion were also held in Chile, where it is only tolerated in cases of rape or danger to the mother’s life, or in Venezuela.
In Caracas, around a hundred activists gathered around Parliament brandishing multi-colored banners with messages such as: “Take the beads out of our ovaries, decriminalize abortion now!” or “They’re girls, not mothers.”
“I receive patients who terminate their pregnancies in dangerous conditions and many end up having serious after-effects,” Pedro Gutiérrez, a 54-year-old obstetrician-gynecologist, told AFP.
“Women, especially the poorest, are the most affected by the criminalization of abortion (…) they are forced to abort in dangerous and unhealthy conditions,” added Claudia Rodriguez, 53, from the collective mothers in struggle.
In Lima, half a thousand women wearing green scarves marched to the courthouse.
“In Peru, abortion, even in cases of rape, is criminalized. In other words, women and girls are forced to continue pregnancies that are the result of a heinous crime,” denounced Liz Meléndez , director of the feminist organization Flora Tristan.
09/29/2023 07:42:06 – Buenos Aires (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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