translated from Spanish: Abortion: Senate vote difference narrows

This Thursday, the voluntary termination of pregnancy project received majority opinion in the upper house with 23 affirmative signatures, unlike 2018 when the initiative did not obtain a favorable opinion in the Senate before being treated on the premises. Some doubts about the votes of legislators were cleared from the opinion. One of the senators who considered herself indecisive, the silvina garcía Larraburu of the Frente de Todos who in 2018 had voted against, yesterday signed in favor of the project. So did the official lawmaker for Entre Ríos, Edgardo Kueider, who has not yet publicly announced what his vote will be like on December 29 but on Thursday he also voted yes yes but with dissent. Other legislators seeking modifications to the text are the Cordoba Ernesto Martínez, of Cambiamos, and the Rionegrino Alberto Weretilneck. Martinez signed the majority opinion with dissent in the article on conscientious objection and opposed Article 13, which obliges the Government, provinces and municipalities to train teachers, doctors and health workers on gender perspective and sexual diversity. Meanwhile, the senator from Juntos Somos Río Negro spoke in favor of the law but did not sign the opinion because he asked for modifications.

Meanwhile, Senators Stella Maris Olalla of the Radical Civic Union and Lucila Crexell of the Neuquino People’s Movement – both from Together for Change – have not yet confirmed what their votes will be. Lawmakers spoke out in favor of decriminalization, even Crexell presented his own project in this line, but they have differences with legalization. The neuquina abstained when the project was discussed in 2018, although in statements this year it said it could accompany it. Finally, another senator who raises doubts is Oscar Castillo, of the Civic and Social Front of Catamarca, who historically favored legalization and voted in this regard two years ago, but on this occasion considered his treatment to be a “political opportunity” and in local media he said he could abstain. He also refused to sign an opinion last Thursday. If the votes of Edgardo Kueider, Stella Maris Olalla, Lucila Crexell and Oscar Castillo are considered indefinite, and Silvina García Larraburu and Alberto Weretilneck among the affirmative votes, the “poroteo” casts 33 votes in favor, 34 for rejection, 1 absentee (José Alperovich) and 4 indefinitely. If there is a tie, the one who will define the vote will be the president of the House of Senators, Cristina Fernández, who, although in the past, had differences with the legalization of abortion, in 2018 voted in favor and is expected to do so this year, if necessary.
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Original source in Spanish