translated from Spanish: Legal Abortion 2020: the letter presented by Actrices Argentinas in Congress

As part of the Global Day of Action for the Right to Safe and Free Legal Abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean, Actrices Argentinas submitted a letter demanding the legalization of voluntary termination of pregnancy in the Chamber of Deputies”This fight finds us in a context where deaths from clandestine abortions do not stop. Neither the pandemic nor the crisis suspends this need that the women’s movement and dissents have pointed out years ago. Despite promises that the debate in Congress would reopen in 2020, even though the draft National Campaign for the Right to Safe and Free Legal Abortion presented in 2019 is full parliamentary status, the treatment of the law continues to be postponed. That is why we are speaking out for its urgent treatment and approval and ask that it be given without any disaltions or concessions,” they detailed at the beginning of the letter from the group. In addition, they noted that clandestine abortion is a public health problem that is directly up to the state, “as well as the Covid-19″. According to the figures detailed in that letter, provided by LATFEM, there are 39,025 pregnant people who entered hospitals for complications related to clandestine abortion – 16% between 10 and 19 years of age.” Every day, 7 girls who have been forced to breast-feeding enter a delivery room in Argentina. This chilling fact exposes the extreme violation of their rights and evidences the urgency of caring for these children. Despite being regarded as Legal Interruptions of Pregnancy, they suffer dilations on the part of the State throughout the country, along with media exposures, obstetric risks and very serious consequences for their physical and mental health,” they continued. “We will not tire of shouting that they are girls, not mothers, who are subjected to torture, sustained by clerical institutions and armed by the state. We denounce the active role of the Churches lobbying from clerical colleges and universities with state funding for the aberrant treatment of these girls, while lobbying to avoid the treatment and passage of the law we claim and the correct implementation of Integral Sex Education at all levels,” Actrices Argentinas demanded. Finally, they expressed the need for the State to guarantee people the right to comprehensive and lay sex education. “The struggle for this law to be treated and passed is more in force than ever in the heat of the immense movement of women and dissents that has already manifested itself worldwide and has no turning back. It’s now, it’s urgent,” they’re over.

Original source in Spanish