ABORTION IN ARGENTINA: THE REFUSAL OF WOMEN’S AUTONOMY

Resumen

On June 14, 2018, the Argentinian lower house did a historic deliberation: by 129 votes to 125 and one abstention, the deputies voted for the legalization of abortion during the first fourteen weeks of pregnancy. After decades of mobilization, it seemed that Argentina would become the second country in South America, after Uruguay in 2012, to legalize a common practice, but carried out in complete secrecy. But, less than two months later, on August 9, the Senate inflicted a cruel setback on the pro-choices, rejecting the project by 38 votes to 31. The article returns to the defining moments of the politicization of abortion in Argentina by first relating the debates of 1994 and those following the crisis of 2001. He analyzes the strategic choice of discourse on life for the actors, as well as the role of the Catholic Church for which the main challenge is to keep its weight on the political elites and its institutional power, in a context of greater religious plurality. The text finally questions the apparent paradox between the remarkable advances in LGBT rights and freedoms, and the political deadlock concerning the right of women to abort legally and in good sanitary conditions