On February 7, a deputy with the far-right ruling party in Argentina sent a bill to Congress to “repeal the law of Legal Termination of Pregnancy (IVE),” one of the historic victories of the feminist movement, secured on December 30, 2020 after over 30 years of struggle.
Although it was foreseeable that Javier Milei’s government would sooner or later seek to repeal the law that helps prevent the death of women in clandestine abortions, nobody expected it in this context of economic crisis and adjustment.
The bill to repeal the IVE provoked even more controversy, when it was revealed that it did not have the support or knowledge of many of the deputies who appear to sign onto the initiative.
The Libertad Avanza (LLA) national deputy Rocío Belén Bonacci presented the bill to criminalize abortion again, which appeared to have the support of many of the legislators of her bloc. But upon inquiries, she clarified, “They are not handwritten signatures, they are accompaniments of members of my block, with whom we previously chatted about this project, some by WhatsApp and others personally…they could be or not.”
That is to say, the bill was presented with the endorsement of many deputies who barely greeted the document with a thumbs-up emoji on WhatsApp. In fact, Lilia Lemoine, a member of the Chamber of Deputies of Argentina and also from the Libertad Avanza party, raised concerns.
“She released it without taking the necessary precautions so that it does not fall on deaf ears,” she said.
The one who finished drafting the project and formally uploaded it to the digital registry of Congress was the father of Congresswoman Bonacci, José Bonacci, who ended up supporting Javier Milei in the last elections.
Last December, Bonacci was arrested after neighbors reported gunshots from his home. When the police entered the home they found an arsenal of weapons.
This article was translated and adapted from an article originally published on ARG Medios.
