Tomorrow Argentine senators will make a decision that will leave a mark on the country’s democracy: they will choose between enshrining the rights of women and trans men, or consolidating a status quo that condemns those who want to interrupt a pregnancy to clandestine conditions, criminalization and death. This status quo harms those with the fewest resources, often in irreparable ways. Months of public debate brought to the fore a vast set of arguments related to jurisprudence, public health, bioethics and human rights that lead to the same conclusion: abortion is a right that must be guaranteed as such, along with the conditions needed for it to be practiced safely.
In recent weeks, millions of people throughout the country have shown their active support for legalizing the voluntary interruption of pregnancy, accompanied by the international community of activists and the international human rights protection system. While the senators debate, outside the national Congress and in plazas nationwide the social mobilizations will be historic in their magnitude. That is because the campaign for legalization begun years ago by women’s and feminist organizations has grown into cross-generational and cross-cutting activism for the rights of women and those with the capacity to gestate. This phenomenon will not end tomorrow because the fight is for an egalitarian society, free of discrimination.
As part of the human rights movement, we call on senators to vote in favor of rights and to make another step forward in forging our country’s democracy.