A few months ago, you couldn't pick up a newspaper in Buenos Aires that didn't have "Aborto!" splattered all across the headlines as a few special cases arose this winter to challenge Argentina's anti-abortion laws.
To start, abortion is illegal in Argentina except in two cases:
1. If an abortion is the only means to save a mother's life or protect her physical or mental health.
2. In cases of rape or incest.
In addition, the penalties for illegal abortion are as follows:
1. Doctors who perform illegal abortions are subject to 3 to 10 years of imprisonment plus the loss of their medical license for twice the amount of time as their sentence.
2. Women who induce their own abortions can face 1 to 4 years of imprisonment.
Sounds a little like a liberal version of South Dakota, no? Well, let's get on with what happened here in August.
The first abortion case in the papers dealt with a 19 year old mentally disabled woman, known only as LMR, who was raped and subsequently became pregnant. When LMR's mother figured out that her daughter was preganant, she deduced how it happened and took her daughter to the hospital for a legal abortion. LMR's mother claimed that having the child would be harmful to her daughter's mental state, as her daughter has the mind of a nine year old and cannot understand the concept of being a mother. At the time, LMR was thought to be 14 weeks pregnant.
The ethics committee at the hospital was reviewing the case, I'm guessing due to the strict penalties for illegal abortions. Before the ethics committee reached their decision, a prosecutor in LMR's rape case alerted Judge Ignacio Siro to LMR's planned abortion. Siro then blocked the abortion due to "personal convictions". On appeal, the Supreme Court of Buenos Aires overruled Siro (who's now being impeached), but the doctors at the hospital refused to perform the procedure. LMR was now at 20 weeks and the physicians said that they could not guarantee her safety if they proceeded with the abortion. Incidentally, the other option here was to induce birth. None of the doctors were willing to do this because they might be charged with homicide, according to Clarín. Of course, the doctors might have had plenty of other objections to inducing birth, including personal ones.
LMR's mother was relieved when the matter was finally settled. Although her main concern had been for LMR's mental health, the mother was grateful to learn that the family would be receiving psychological and social assistance from the government.
Also in August, another mentally-disabled woman was seeking an abortion due to rape, this time in the province of Mendoza. The victim's mother requested a judicial authorization for an abortion, but it was blocked by an injunction from a Catholic organization. The Supreme Court in Mendoza overturned the injunction, and the abortion was performed as planned.*
The Ministerio de Salud estimates that between 500,000 and 700,000 illegal abortions are performed in Argentina annually. Public opinion holds that the more money a woman has, the more accessible safe abortion is. Around 80,000 women are hospitalized each year after botched abortions.
The legal question of abortion in Argentina is complicated by the Constitution. In 1994, constitutional reforms gave the international Pact of San Jose constitutional status. This pact between Latin American countries focuses mainly on human rights but also declares the right to life "in general, from the moment of conception". The open wording here has led to some debate about abortion.
Contraceptives are readily available in pharmacies in the parts of the city that I know. The pill is even available without a prescription. However, in the villas (the "underprivileged" neighborhoods) contraceptives don't seem to be readily available, despite laws passed a few years ago to offer free contraceptives at public health centers. The Catholic church recommends that women pay attention to their cycles to avoid unwanted pregnancy. Even if women religiously tracked each day, most of them note that when their men come home drunk, they don't have much of a choice. In addition, a lack of education leads some to reuse condoms and engage in folk methods of contraception (some are rumored to use socks when they can't get condoms).
In more recent news, this week the legislature unanimously passed a law to require sexual education for all students from age five through secondary school. The new law is meant to shore up a 2003 law that allowed for sex ed in schools but did not mandate that the Ministry of Education create a curriculum. Some schools already have a sex education program for their students, but the new curriculum will be created by the Ministry of Education in conjunction with a panel of experts to cover the physiological, psychological, emotional, ethical and social aspects of sex, gender, and sexuality.
In the past, some families have argued that they prefer to educate their children at home about sex. To help sway the representatives of these citizens, the Ministry of Education will create the curriculum, but individual schools will be allowed to "adapt" the material to the sensitivities of their particular community. Some fear that this concession will allow schools to remove parts of the curriculum that are essential to the spirit of the new law.**
All I can say is that I hope the kids in the villas get some of this information before they drop out of school.
*Abortion Sources: Clarín: Los médicos no harán el aborto y la chica violada tendrá a su bebé, Kaiser Network: Argentina Supreme Court Rules Mentally Impaired Rape Survivor Can Undergo Abortion; Case Sparks Abortion-Rights Debate, La Nación: Otro pedido de aborto para una discapacitada.
**Sexual Education Sources: IPS News: EDUCATION-ARGENTINA:
Sex in the Classrooms - By Law, Clarín: En 2007 darán educación sexual en todas las escuelas porteñas, La Nación: Los porteños recibirán educación sexual, and Ya es ley la educación sexual en la Capital.
Tuesday, October 31
Sunday, October 15
¿quiénes somos?
Who are we? Americans? Norteamericanos? Estadounidenses?
Many moons ago when I was studying in Germany and someone asked my nationality, I would answer, "Ich bin Amerikanerin." When I visited folks in England in January 2002, my friends expressed their condolences for September 11th by saying, "No one expected an attack on America." And while I am fiercely passionate about my state (you know, the Golden One) I am also "proud to be an American". Despite all this talk from my past travels about "America", in Argentina I tell people, "Soy de los Estados Unidos." (I'm from the United States.) What's caused this change in label? Read on, boludos!
Before I jump into this linguistic war, let's walk down memory lane. Think back to elementary school. "Okay, people! Listen up, people, mkay? Eyes up front! Okay, today we're going to learn about Geography. Can anyone tell me how many continents there are?" Seven. "Good, now what are the names of the continents?" Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, Antarctica, North America, and South America.
Very good, class...unless you're in a Latin American elementary school. Prepare the dunce cap! See, little latinos learn that there are six continents: Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, Antarctica, and the Americas. No gold stars for you! Come back one year!!
Why do Latin American schools teach such junk social science? Well, it's not without cause. Once upon a time, oh, about 1507, a German mapmaker named Martin Waldseemüller first used the term "America" in one of his cartographic endeavors. Waldseemüller was describing that skinny little land mass on the left side of the map below, and he got the name from that swingin' Italian, Amerigo Vespucci (America is the Latin feminine version of Vespucci's first name). I'm going to gloss over the "why" of the etymology of "America" here, because the important bit is that the whole land mass, from Patagonia to the glaciers in the north, was named America.
So, now that we've begun to broaden our world view, you can see how the folks of Latin America consider themselves, well, plain old Americans. Seeing as how all these argentinos that I live with everyday consider themselves Americans too, I try to adjust my speech wherever possible to accommodate them. However, their solutions to this label issue are no better than ours. Most people I talk to here insist on using the term "North American" or "norteamericano" to describe citizens of the U.S.
We run into two problems here though. Point number one, the English-speaking world includes Mexico in North America. Anyone remember NAFTA? The North American Free Trade Agreement? You know, that little pact between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico...the three countries of North America. Now, many of my students don't mean to include Mexico into the fray of the term norteamericano, so I take that at face value, usually due to....Point number two, Canadians are not citizens of the United States of America. Actually, my usual line is, "North American, huh? But that's unfair to Canadians," Now, this gives my students pause. They have no beef with Canada (so far) so they don't know what to say. I like to point out that they are ignoring the second largest country in the world when they use the term "North American" to describe U.S. citizens. (Of course I also seize on this time to explain how Americans sometimes like to make fun of Canadians. It's a cultural teaching moment, to be sure.) Either way, my students don't know what to say next.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to invalidate my students' arguments that they are Americans too. Obviously they are. It's not like Europe had the foresight to name all of the land that would become part of the U.S.A.*, "America". No! They named what is now thought of as two continents (in English), "America." As Bubba Clinton would say, "I feel their pain." Except I mean it.
So at this point, I turn the question back on my students. First I remind them that the full and recognized name of my country is "The United States of America" and then I challenge them to come up with an alternative adjective other than "American". The only English-viable solution I get is "United Statesian". Some students say that would be okay. The others say, "I forgot 'America' was part of your country's name." At this point, I know that they like me because they're being polite and open to the problem.
Now that we've all grasped the dilemma, I also point out in class that people in Europe, the Middle East, and elsewhere refer to the U.S.A. as "America". This is to show my students that it's not just U.S. citizens that think of America as the U.S.A., but also hundreds of millions of others that agree. I mean really. Did your Irish/German/Italian ancestors say that they were going to the United States of America? No. They told their families that they were leaving for America.
So hopefully now, my students understand the gravity of the situation. They are not just arguing against the most powerful nation in the world, but most of the most powerful nations in the world. A good portion of the world's population (at least in terms of wealth). Now, while I can't envision many of us putting bumper stickers on our pick-ups that declare, "Proud to be a United Statesian", I can imagine us using the term "American" only when we're stuck for an alternative. I believe that in English, that's all we can do. Meanwhile, our Spanish-speaking friends can respect Canada just a bit more by using estadounidense when they want to describe a United Statesian, er...uh, a citizen of the U.S.
Of course I'm interested in hearing other salient solutions....if you've got any.
*In Spanish, the abbreviation for U.S.A. is E.E.U.U., as in los Estados Unidos with de América taken out. To be fair, we usually use the abbreviation U.S. in most contexts. And if you're wondering about the doubled letters on the abbreviation, in Spanish, plural words are abbreviated with double letters. Therefore, la Unión Europea is abbreviated U.E. since it's singular, whereas recursos humanos (human resources) is R.R.H.H.
Many moons ago when I was studying in Germany and someone asked my nationality, I would answer, "Ich bin Amerikanerin." When I visited folks in England in January 2002, my friends expressed their condolences for September 11th by saying, "No one expected an attack on America." And while I am fiercely passionate about my state (you know, the Golden One) I am also "proud to be an American". Despite all this talk from my past travels about "America", in Argentina I tell people, "Soy de los Estados Unidos." (I'm from the United States.) What's caused this change in label? Read on, boludos!
Before I jump into this linguistic war, let's walk down memory lane. Think back to elementary school. "Okay, people! Listen up, people, mkay? Eyes up front! Okay, today we're going to learn about Geography. Can anyone tell me how many continents there are?" Seven. "Good, now what are the names of the continents?" Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, Antarctica, North America, and South America.
Very good, class...unless you're in a Latin American elementary school. Prepare the dunce cap! See, little latinos learn that there are six continents: Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, Antarctica, and the Americas. No gold stars for you! Come back one year!!
Why do Latin American schools teach such junk social science? Well, it's not without cause. Once upon a time, oh, about 1507, a German mapmaker named Martin Waldseemüller first used the term "America" in one of his cartographic endeavors. Waldseemüller was describing that skinny little land mass on the left side of the map below, and he got the name from that swingin' Italian, Amerigo Vespucci (America is the Latin feminine version of Vespucci's first name). I'm going to gloss over the "why" of the etymology of "America" here, because the important bit is that the whole land mass, from Patagonia to the glaciers in the north, was named America.
So, now that we've begun to broaden our world view, you can see how the folks of Latin America consider themselves, well, plain old Americans. Seeing as how all these argentinos that I live with everyday consider themselves Americans too, I try to adjust my speech wherever possible to accommodate them. However, their solutions to this label issue are no better than ours. Most people I talk to here insist on using the term "North American" or "norteamericano" to describe citizens of the U.S.
We run into two problems here though. Point number one, the English-speaking world includes Mexico in North America. Anyone remember NAFTA? The North American Free Trade Agreement? You know, that little pact between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico...the three countries of North America. Now, many of my students don't mean to include Mexico into the fray of the term norteamericano, so I take that at face value, usually due to....Point number two, Canadians are not citizens of the United States of America. Actually, my usual line is, "North American, huh? But that's unfair to Canadians," Now, this gives my students pause. They have no beef with Canada (so far) so they don't know what to say. I like to point out that they are ignoring the second largest country in the world when they use the term "North American" to describe U.S. citizens. (Of course I also seize on this time to explain how Americans sometimes like to make fun of Canadians. It's a cultural teaching moment, to be sure.) Either way, my students don't know what to say next.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to invalidate my students' arguments that they are Americans too. Obviously they are. It's not like Europe had the foresight to name all of the land that would become part of the U.S.A.*, "America". No! They named what is now thought of as two continents (in English), "America." As Bubba Clinton would say, "I feel their pain." Except I mean it.
So at this point, I turn the question back on my students. First I remind them that the full and recognized name of my country is "The United States of America" and then I challenge them to come up with an alternative adjective other than "American". The only English-viable solution I get is "United Statesian". Some students say that would be okay. The others say, "I forgot 'America' was part of your country's name." At this point, I know that they like me because they're being polite and open to the problem.
Now that we've all grasped the dilemma, I also point out in class that people in Europe, the Middle East, and elsewhere refer to the U.S.A. as "America". This is to show my students that it's not just U.S. citizens that think of America as the U.S.A., but also hundreds of millions of others that agree. I mean really. Did your Irish/German/Italian ancestors say that they were going to the United States of America? No. They told their families that they were leaving for America.
So hopefully now, my students understand the gravity of the situation. They are not just arguing against the most powerful nation in the world, but most of the most powerful nations in the world. A good portion of the world's population (at least in terms of wealth). Now, while I can't envision many of us putting bumper stickers on our pick-ups that declare, "Proud to be a United Statesian", I can imagine us using the term "American" only when we're stuck for an alternative. I believe that in English, that's all we can do. Meanwhile, our Spanish-speaking friends can respect Canada just a bit more by using estadounidense when they want to describe a United Statesian, er...uh, a citizen of the U.S.
Of course I'm interested in hearing other salient solutions....if you've got any.
*In Spanish, the abbreviation for U.S.A. is E.E.U.U., as in los Estados Unidos with de América taken out. To be fair, we usually use the abbreviation U.S. in most contexts. And if you're wondering about the doubled letters on the abbreviation, in Spanish, plural words are abbreviated with double letters. Therefore, la Unión Europea is abbreviated U.E. since it's singular, whereas recursos humanos (human resources) is R.R.H.H.
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