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The Pereira Rossell Hospital in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Will Alexander

While voters in the United States were celebrating a historic election this past week, women in Uruguay were celebrating the passage of historic legislation that would give women the right to abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.  Sadly, celebrations were cut short when President Tabaré Vásquez vetoed the popular legislation.

The comprehensive sexual and reproductive health bill, which was approved by both houses of congress and garnered considerable public support, is a historical milestone in the journey towards the decriminalization of abortion in the country and the region. Women’s health activists, joined by a diverse cadre of social movements, have rejected the veto and remain hopeful that change is on the way.

The bill was originally introduced by women’s rights and abortion rights activists in 2004 and it went through many fits and starts before culminating in Tuesday’s vote. This most recent vote followed one taken exactly a year earlier by the Senate, which also approved the bill. 

Though the House of Representatives approved the bill by a 49-48 vote on November 4, some members had reservations about its content — though, surprisingly, not related to abortion. The bill was returned to the Senate for a second vote, and it was swiftly approved November 11 by 17 of 30 senators present despite warnings that President Vásquez would veto the bill.

The passage of the bill by both houses of congress nonetheless represents a significant step forward for this deeply Catholic nation, which has banned all abortions since 1938 except in cases of rape or to save the life of the woman. Members of congress passed the bill despite threats from Montevideo’s Archbishop Nicholas Cotugno that those voting for decriminalizing abortion would be excommunicated. Even so, the public has largely supported the measure: the private polling agency Interconsult reported that 57 percent of Uruguayans were in favor of fewer restrictions on abortion and 63 percent were against a presidential veto on the bill.

Despite Uruguay’s restrictions, 33,000 clandestine abortions take place in the country every year, compared with 47,000 births, according to Lilián Abracinskas, director of leading women’s rights group Mujer y Salud en Uruguay (Women and Health in Uruguay). Pereira Rossell Hospital, an Ipas partner, documented that between 1996 and 2001 nearly half of all maternal deaths in the hospital were due to unsafe abortion. Since then, it has implemented a harm-reduction strategy. This strategy seeks to reduce death and injury from unsafe abortion by providing women with unwanted pregnancies with accurate information about the use of misoprostol to end pregnancy.

While the harm-reduction strategy has succeeded in reducing the number of maternal deaths from unsafe abortion, many women remain unable to visit a participating provider or unaware that the program exists. Women are still forced to terminate their pregnancies in secret, without the support of their communities and health-care providers, risking injury from complications. Decriminalizing abortion in Uruguay would have allowed women to seek safe abortion care without recrimination and providers to offer abortion care without fear of prosecution.

If President Vásquez had enacted the bill, Uruguay would have joined Cuba and Guyana to be one of the few Latin American countries with broad legal indications for abortion. In Mexico, the Federal District of Mexico City has a similar law. However, the president followed through on his promise to veto the bill, and safe abortion will remain out of reach for many Uruguayan women, who will continue to resort to unsafe, clandestine services, risking their health and their lives.

Activists are rejecting the veto and have called for a protest today in the capital Montevideo. They maintain that the presidential veto does not mark the end of the bill, and that they are committed to pursuing all legal avenues to advance legislation that protects women’s lives and promotes women’s sexual and reproductive health.

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