Bill legalizing abortion passed in pope's native Argentina
Under Wednesday’s majority vote, abortion is legalized up to the 14th week of pregnancy, and is also legal after that time in cases of rape or danger to the mother’s life.
Argentine senators debated for hour after hour over legalizing abortion, wrangling into the early hours of Wednesday before a vote that could mark the culmination of a decades-long fight by women's groups in Pope Francis' homeland and have repercussions across a continent where the procedure is largely illegal.
Argentina currently penalizes women and those who help them abort. The only exceptions are cases involving rape or a risk to the health of the mother, and activists complain even these exceptions are not respected in some provinces.
Just hours before the Senate session began Tuesday, the pope weighed in, tweeting: "The Son of God was born an outcast, in order to tell us that every outcast is a child of God. He came into the world as each child comes into the world, weak and vulnerable, so that we can learn to accept our weaknesses with tender love.”
A previous abortion bill was voted down by Argentine lawmakers in 2018, but this time it was being backed by the center-left government. The outcome of the latest vote, however, was still considered uncertain.
Argentina’s feminist movement has been demanding legal abortion for more than 30 years and activists say the bill's approval could mark a watershed in Latin America, where the Roman Catholic Church's influence has long dominated.
“Our country is a country of many contradictions. It is the only one in the world that brought members of its genocidal military dictatorship to justice with all the guarantees. But we still don’t have legal abortion. Why? Because the church is together with the state.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1252522
Under Wednesday’s majority vote, abortion is legalized up to the 14th week of pregnancy, and is also legal after that time in cases of rape or danger to the mother’s life.
Argentine senators debated for hour after hour over legalizing abortion, wrangling into the early hours of Wednesday before a vote that could mark the culmination of a decades-long fight by women's groups in Pope Francis' homeland and have repercussions across a continent where the procedure is largely illegal.
Argentina currently penalizes women and those who help them abort. The only exceptions are cases involving rape or a risk to the health of the mother, and activists complain even these exceptions are not respected in some provinces.
Just hours before the Senate session began Tuesday, the pope weighed in, tweeting: "The Son of God was born an outcast, in order to tell us that every outcast is a child of God. He came into the world as each child comes into the world, weak and vulnerable, so that we can learn to accept our weaknesses with tender love.”
A previous abortion bill was voted down by Argentine lawmakers in 2018, but this time it was being backed by the center-left government. The outcome of the latest vote, however, was still considered uncertain.
Argentina’s feminist movement has been demanding legal abortion for more than 30 years and activists say the bill's approval could mark a watershed in Latin America, where the Roman Catholic Church's influence has long dominated.
“Our country is a country of many contradictions. It is the only one in the world that brought members of its genocidal military dictatorship to justice with all the guarantees. But we still don’t have legal abortion. Why? Because the church is together with the state.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1252522
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"