Argentina's new government moves to guarantee access to abortion in rape cases [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

DECEMBER 12, 2019 / 4:45 PM / UPDATED 7 HOURS AGO

Hugh Bronstein
3 MIN READ

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Women and girls in Argentina seeking to end pregnancies caused by rape will be guaranteed access to abortion under a protocol announced on Thursday aimed at reducing the latitude hospitals have in deciding whether or not to perform the procedure.

Argentine law allows abortion in case of rape or threat to the life or health of the mother. But abortion rights advocates say the law is not always applied across the largely Roman Catholic country and that local hospitals have too much power to decide which cases fall under the legal criteria.

“The protocol will be used as a guide, especially in cases where the law clearly allows for the interruption of pregnancies,” Health Minister Gines Gonzalez Garcia told a news conference. He was sworn in on Tuesday after moderate Peronist President Alberto Fernandez was inaugurated.

“We are respectful of conscientious objection but conscientious objection cannot be used as an institutional alibi for not complying with the law,” Gonzalez Garcia added.

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