Montevideo -
Uruguay is set on Wednesday to become only the second country in mostly Catholic South America to legalise abortion, in a shift one top official says makes it a regional health care leader.
With more cows than people, this sleepy, well-educated nation of just three million sandwiched between Argentina and Brazil, might seem an unlikely trailblazer on the public health front.
But the Senate in the South American nation is expected to vote on Wednesday to allow women the right, under certain conditions, to end an unwanted pregnancy, and make access to the right part of its health care system.
The developments come under the government of a president who is a doctor by training, Jose Mujica, and a deputy health minister, Leonel Briozzo, who is an obstetrician.
A non-surgical technique employed unofficially in Uruguay makes use of the drug misoprostol, a common ulcer medication, to facilitate expulsion of the fetus.
At the moment the drug is only sold on the black market for abortion use, but if Wednesday's vote goes as expected it will soon be available for legal procedures in public health facilities.
“Safe abortion practices are Uruguay's top health contribution to the region,” stressed Briozzo, a strong defender of a woman's right to safe legal abortion.
He said the drug-induced abortions ought to be the medical standard for the procedure worldwide, including in Europe, where surgical abortion is common.
Surgery is “less appropriate, and more unsafe,” Briozzo argued.
The doctor provocatively described misoprostol as “the penicillin of the 21st century,” saying its social and health implications are potentially vast.
“I think drug-induced abortion is a revolution for mankind because this marks the first time that a woman herself can control an abortion in a safe way,” he said. “So I really think that it is the way of the future.”
Briozzo said he was aware of the moral and ethical implications of choosing the procedure but also believes the social and economic costs of pushing women to opt for illegal abortions are simply too high to accept.
If approved, Uruguay would become only the second South American country to legalise abortion, after English-speaking Guyana in 1995. Cuba, a Latin American nation in the Caribbean, did so in 1965 and procedures are also legal in Mexico City.
“The explanation is that Latin America is the last outpost of the Roman Catholic Church,” Briozzo said.
The bill, inspired by similar legislation in some European countries, would allow a first trimester abortion only after a woman has consulted a team of three medical professionals on the potential risks of terminating a pregnancy.
Doctors will also be required to advise women about alternatives to ending the pregnancy, including adoption and social welfare programs that could help her to care for a newborn infant.
At present, abortion here is punishable by nine months in prison for the woman and up to two years for the doctor performing the abortion.
The bill that would change that is, to some degree, disliked by both sides.
Some pro-choice activists are disappointed that it fails to acknowledge a woman's right to determine her own reproductive fate. Pro-life campaigners, meanwhile, say it legalises the killing of an unborn life.
Mujica, 77, who belongs to the leftist Frente Amplio coalition, has vowed to sign the abortion bill into law once it is approved by the Senate.
There are no statistics on illegal abortions in Uruguay, but non-governmental groups estimate their number to be around 30,000
per year. - Sapa-AFP