Argentina’s Senate will decide next week whether to give final approval to a government-backed bill that would expand the availability of legal abortion, a proposal that has divided a society with strong ties to the Roman Catholic church.
On December 11, the lower house of Congress approved the measure, which would allow interruption of pregnancies until the fourteenth week. The Senate vote is expected to be close.
“We have the right to be able to decide about our own lives, about whether we want to have children and, if we want to have them, how many we want to have. If we decide to interrupt the pregnancy, we have the right to do it autonomously and freely,” Yamila Picasso, a 33-year-old activist, told the Reuters news agency outside Congress, where she was demonstrating.