Argentina Faulted for Reproductive Policies
Argentina Faulted for Reproductive PoliciesI found a newspaper article titled "Argentina Faulted for Reproductive Policies" published on The New York Times, by Alexeibarrionuevo dated on August 10, 2010. The article presents a scenario where human rights get digressed in the name of religion and politics. Despite being a signatory to Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (CEDAW), the Argentinean government's policies and practices have been contradictory to the mandates of CEDAW, more specifically the reproductive rights of women. For instance, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has reversed steps towards protecting women's health and reproductive rights, and backtracked on its intention to guarantee an access to legal abortion. But there are number of pros and cons in it. The dominant factors: religion, culture, government law are somewhat paradoxical with the human rights.
"Women continue to struggle to obtain birth control, despite a 2002 law ensuring access to it, and doctors shy away from offering legal abortions in the predominantly Roman Catholic country. Argentine law strictly limits abortions, with exceptions that include physical or mental risk to the patient and pregnancies resulting from rape", the report says. It is obvious that the life of the baby begins in the womb of the mother and if we see it through the perspectives of the baby, it is the right of the baby to survive. But, at the same time, if the fetus is of unwanted or the mother is not willing to give birth to a baby or if she is, and wants to give the baby to somebody else, this is her choice as promised by human right. "Sexual and reproductive security, including freedom from sexual violence and coercion, and the right to privacy" (UNFPA 1997)
The article says most pregnancies ended in abortions, were illegal and unsafe. Unsafe abortions continue to be a leading cause of maternal mortalities in Argentina. So, it is very wise to legalize the abortion to control such unwanted outcomes. But at the same time we can see that people are not willing to choose abortion as the country is predominantly Roman Catholic country. We can see great contradiction between religion and the human rights in this very issue. According to their religion, they are not allowed the option of abortion and not supposed to use any means of contraceptives. To the contrary, many practicing Roman Catholic women experience high maternal mortality due to the illegal and unsafe abortion. This very issue has also become a burning issue in most of the Latin American countries. People in these countries are raising their anti-abortion voices to carry significant political weight. The debate of reproductive policy in Argentina has become the unsolved issue and has created a paradox. Human right is still somewhat hidden and misunderstood, and as a result remains contradictory. There is no fixed decision made by neither the government nor the law. As mentioned in the article, the health minister and the president are unable to address this issue publicly:
"Dr. Juan Luis Manzur, a spokesman for Health Minister, had signed a resolution backing a guide to legal abortion services. The guide would allow doctors to carry out abortions for rape victims without securing a police report. But a day later, the minister issued a statement saying he had not signed the resolution, and Argentine news outlets suggested that Mrs. Kirchner had ordered him to halt the effort".
Use and sell of contraceptives was reintroduced in 2002 after an 11-year ban ended in Argentina. This was the result of the National Law on Sexual Health and Responsible Procreation. This law focuses with providing universal access regarding information pertaining to contraceptives and reproductive health. "Reproductive health as a component of overall health, throughout the life cycle, for both men and women" (UNFPA 1997). However, women in Argentina have encountered barriers to making independent decisions about reproduction. Examples include information that the government had not adequately addressed; such as, domestic and sexual violence, and economic restraints.
References
UNFPA (1997). The Right to Reproductive and Sexual Health
Retrieved on September 6, 2010 from
http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/women/womrepro.htm
Words by Karun
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Written on 2011-01-21 at 03:09
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