Over 3.5 million Argentinians rallied together to protest a bill that would liberalise abortion laws.
The bill, introduced in early March by more than 70 members of the country’s parliament, would allow women to have an abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.
Currently abortion in the predominantly Catholic country is illegal, other than when the mother’s health is at risk or in rape cases.
Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri, despite insisting he is personally pro-life, has allowed the ongoing debate to take place and has said he will not veto the law if it were to pass through Congress.
On Sunday 20 May, in an event organised by ‘Marcha Por La Vida’ (March for Life), 117 cities in Argentina marched under the slogan “Save them Both”.
In Buenos Aires, organisers read a statement asking legislators of both the government and the opposition to categorically reject the proposed bill.
“We rally because we want to protect both lives since, whether it’s done at the mother’s request or not, abortion causes the woman and those around her irreparable damage, becoming an attack against society’s common good,” the statement said.
Organisers also said that behind the problem of abortion there are “difficult and painful situations, of violence, marginalisation, poverty, lack of formation, loneliness and abandonment; but our most intimate conviction is that abortion is never the solution”.