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Argentina Considers Legalizing First-Trimester Abortion

By Gudrun Schultz

BUENOS ARIES, Argentina, May 26, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Catholic Argentina is facing an explicit threat against the country's pro-life laws in a proposal to legalize first trimester abortions, reported Catholic News Service Monday.

The proposal is part of an ongoing revision of the Argentine penal code. Under the new code, the section addressing abortion would read, "The woman is not punishable when the abortion is practiced with her consent and within three months of conception, provided circumstance made it excusable."

The Argentine Constitution recognizes the humanity of the unborn child "from the moment of conception."  Abortion is currently illegal in Argentina except in rare cases involving rape or when the mother's life is in danger.

Church leaders in the country have spoken out against the changes to the code, challenging them as unconstitutional. Father Ruben Revello is coordinator of the bioethics institute at the Catholic University of Argentina. He said the Catholic Church clearly teaches abortion is murder.

"We have to do what the gospel said and defend truth. We are convinced that truth is the defence of life," he said.

Nicolas Laferriere is a bioethics lawyer and professor at CUA. He condemned the proposal, saying:

"The proposal is unconstitutional because I understand that the right to life is protected by the constitution; it's discriminatory because it imagines that these unborn people are second-c lass citizens, at the mercy of the whim of others; and it's incoherent because the civil code recognizes that life starts at conception."

Argentine President Nestor Kirchner is walking a fine line in the abortion debates as the country heads toward presidential elections in 2007, media reports suggest. He has not publicly stated support for abortion, but he did appoint a pro-abortion Supreme Court justice, self-described as a "militant atheist."

Pro-abortion groups, among them a Canadian organization, have been pushing the Argentine government to legalize abortions. In 2002 the Vatican warned the Argentine Church against a pro-abortion group working in league with the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the Canadian Child Care Federation, which was attempting to gain influence in Catholic dioceses.

Incremental weakening of the laws preventing abortion has progressed over the past five years. In 2001 the Supreme Court of Argentina ruled that a woman seven months pregnant with a child diagnosed as having an under developed brain could induce early labour, based on her psychological suffering.

In 2002, however, the Supreme Court ruled that the "morning after pill" could not be sold in the country because, as an abortifacient, it violated the Constitutional protection of human life "from the moment of conception."

In a further attack on respect for life, the current penal code revisions would also allow judges to use their discretion in reducing or waiving prison terms in cases of euthanasia.

Related coverage:
ARGENTINE SUPREME COURT ALLOWS INDUCTION OF LABOUR FOR ANCEPHALY
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/jan/01011202.html
ARGENTINE SUPREME COURT PROHIBITS "MORNING-AFTER PILL"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/mar/02030601.html
VATICAN WARNS ARGENTINA AGAINST CANADIAN PRO-ABORTION GROUP
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/oct/02100902.html

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