Alberto Fernández accused Mauricio Macri of blocking the abortion law in 2018: "I pay you so you don't vote"

“What was the difference between 2018 and 2020? In 2020 the President called the governors to ask them to please vote on the abortion law (Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy - IVE) and in 2018 there was a President who called the governors to tell them 'I pay you so you don't vote'. That was the difference."

With these words, almost at the end of the act for the two years of the sanction of Law 27,610, Alberto Fernández accused Mauricio Macri of offering money so that the senators do not approve the initiative. In August 2018, indeed, the Upper House rejected the project with 38 votes against, 31 in favor, 2 abstentions and one absentee.

Two years later, on December 30, 2020, the IVE Law was approved by 38 in favor, 29 against, four absent and one abstention. “It was the result of a “cultural change and a fight against hypocrisy. This norm made Argentina a better society”, said Alberto Fernández when closing a meeting in the Women's Hall headed by the Ministers of Health, Carla Vizzotti; of Women, Gender and Diversity, Ayelén Mazzina, and the Legal and Technical Secretary, Vilma Ibarra.

“If we expand rights we live in a better society. We have managed to make what was a big problem stop being a problem for many women and because we have to recognize that it was a collective achievement that in any case it was the government I preside over that decided to promote it from the Executive Power”, remarked the President .

The head of state pondered the role that Ibarra had in drafting and sanctioning the regulations and highlighted: "This law is the result of a change in culture and a struggle that women led for years and that one day a government and a Congress were willing to acknowledge it.

The President highlighted the difference with the Cambiemos government: "We came from a frustration that in 2018 someone had tried it and someone had taken care that it did not come out." In addition, he stressed that the law "is a promoter of life, women's health" and called to "continue fighting for more rights."

The head of state pondered the role that Ibarra had in drafting and sanctioning the regulations and highlighted: "This law is the result of a change in culture and a struggle that women led for years and that one day a government and a Congress were willing to acknowledge it.