Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Bill (Argentina)

Demonstration at the Congressional Plaza in Buenos Aires during the treatment of the IVE bill by the Chamber of Deputies on 13 June 2018.

The Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Law (Spanish: Ley de Interrupción Voluntaria del Embarazo; IVE) was approved by the National Congress of Argentina in 2020, legalizing abortion in Argentina. The first draft of the bill was created in 2006 by the National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe, and Free Abortion (Campaña Nacional por el Derecho al Aborto Legal, Seguro y Gratuito), which sought to have Congress consider it in seven different occasions, to no avail.[1][2]

In 2018, the bill was introduced into the legislative agenda, with the approval of then-PRO president Mauricio Macri, who was personally against it.[3] It was approved by the Chamber of Deputies by a 129 to 125 margin on 13 June 2018,[4] but failed to pass the Senate on 8 August 2018 by a 38 to 31 margin.[5]

In 2020, the bill was sent to Congress once again (with some modifications) by the administration of new Justicialist Party president Alberto Fernández, who explicitly backed the initiative.[6] It was approved by the Chamber of Deputies on 11 December by a 131 to 117 margin, and by the Senate on 30 December 2020 by a 38 to 29 margin, effectively legalizing abortion in Argentina.[7][8] The law made Argentina the third (and the first major) Latin American nation to legalize abortion, after Uruguay and Cuba.[9][10][11][12]

  1. ^ "La legalización del aborto en el Congreso, un proyecto que suma firmas cada año". Télam (in Spanish). 22 March 2018. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  2. ^ "Cronología de los intentos de legalización del aborto en la Argentina". Página/12 (in Spanish). 28 December 2020. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  3. ^ Ini, Candela (2 March 2018). "Aborto: finalmente Macri pidió que se abra el debate". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  4. ^ Shaw, Marcos (14 June 2018). "La Cámara de Diputados aprobó el aborto legal y ahora define el Senado". Infobae (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  5. ^ Goñi, Uki (9 August 2018). "Argentina senate rejects bill to legalise abortion". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  6. ^ "Argentina abortion: President Alberto Fernández is to present new bill to Congress". BBC News. 17 November 2020. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  7. ^ "Lawmakers in lower house approve bill to legalise abortion in Argentina". Buenos Aires Times (in Spanish). 11 December 2020. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  8. ^ "El Senado esta vez se vistió de verde y el aborto legal ya es ley en la Argentina". Ámbito (in Spanish). 30 December 2020. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  9. ^ Phillips, Tom; Goñi, Uki (30 December 2020). "Argentina on brink of historic vote to legalise abortion". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  10. ^ "Argentina abortion: Senate votes in favour of legalisation". BBC News (in Spanish). 30 December 2020. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  11. ^ "Argentine Senate approves bill to legalise abortion". Al Jazeera. 30 December 2020. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  12. ^ Politi, Daniel; Londoño, Ernesto (30 December 2020). "Argentina Legalizes Abortion, a Milestone in a Conservative Region". The New York Times (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 December 2020.