LATIN AMERICA'S NEW ANTI-ABORTION BATTLE LINE: FETUS ADOPTION OVER ABORTION

[Judi Lynn]

By Deborah Bonello

There is no word in Spanish for miscarriage. The term aborto espontaneo, which translates to spontaneous abortion, is the language used when pregnancy in Latin America ends suddenly. But as popular opinion in the region — home to some of the world’s most draconian legislation against abortion — slowly moves away from rigid opposition, anti-abortion actors are changing their language and tactics to fight back.

For decades, anti-abortion campaigns in Latin America have been built around principles outlined in the Bible, and values of morality and decency, says Fernanda Doz Costa, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Americas. Now, a new generation of activists opposed to abortion has adopted a rights-based approach arguing in favor of both the mother’s and the child’s rights, or that abortion can be avoided in many cases without the mother having to raise the child.

Lawmakers in Argentina, Paraguay and Panama are proposing legislation that would allow the adoption of fetuses before birth, or would pressure hospitals into minimizing the number of abortions they carry out. In Paraguay, campaigners are trying to create a register for fetuses that die before biwrth. In Panama, Deputy Corina Cano is proposing a bill that would require hospitals to preserve for the72 hours the remains of fetuses that die before birth.

And in Argentina, Deputy Marcela Campagnoli of the ruling Cambiemos coalition has proposed to Congress that fetuses from unwanted pregnancies be born prematurely — after their 20th week — via cesarean section and then incubated and adopted by nonbiological parents. Campagnoli did not respond to requests for an interview. But in March 2018, she told a radio channel that she wanted to balance the needs of “the mother who does not want to have the child” and her party’s opposition to the “death of a child.”

More:
https://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/latin-americas-new-anti-abortion-battle-line-fetus-adoption-over-abortion/96949



Party Leader, Elisa Carrió, left, Deputy Marcela Campagnoli, right.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I guess there are no lengths to which they will not go to control women's fertility. n/t

[secondwind]

2. My goodness, this obsession with fetuses is getting out of hand!

Women are not brood mares, damn it