BUENOS AIRES - Capitalising on a more favourable public opinion, an alliance of civil society organisations in Argentina presented to Congress a draft law Monday for the legalisation of abortion in a country where illegal abortions are the main cause of maternal mortality.

On the International Day of Action for Women's Health, which is celebrated May 28, 250 women's and human rights groups, trade unions, political parties and personalities from the spheres of culture, science and academia delivered their initiative to the legislators.

"This is the first time that parliament has been presented with a draft law drawn up by civil society to demand the decriminalisation of abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy," one of the initiative's sponsors, Martha Rosenberg with the Forum for Reproductive Rights, told IPS.

The climate is more favourable today for the initiative, for different reasons. According to a national poll on public opinion on reproductive rights carried out by the Knack polling firm, the proportion of people in Argentina who believe abortion should be decriminalised grew from 28 to 46 percent before 2004 and 2006.

In that same period, the proportion of respondents who said they would accept full legalisation of abortion on demand rose from 11 to 20 percent, while the proportion of respondents who said abortion should be illegal under any circumstances shrank from 23 to 13 percent.

Under the draft law, whose authors studied abortion legislation in other countries, all women would have the right to choose before the 12th week of pregnancy whether or not to carry the baby to term and would have access to a safe abortion, free of charge, in the public health care services.

The proposed legislation would also grant the right to late-term abortion (after the 12th week of pregnancy) to rape victims, women found to be carrying a severely malformed fetus, or women whose health or life is endangered by the pregnancy. In no case would prior judicial authorisation be required, only the patient's written consent.

In Argentina, both the woman who undergoes an abortion and the person who practices it are subject to prosecution, except in cases involving the rape of a mentally disabled or ill girl or woman, or when the mother's health or life is put at risk by the pregnancy.

But even in these extreme cases, doctors tend to demand judicial authorisation, with the consequent delay and possible risks to the mother's mental or physical wellbeing.

A 20-year-old mother of three died this month of jaw cancer in the northeastern province of Santa Fe. After she became pregnant, the public hospital refused her radiation therapy, to avoid endangering the fetus. An abortion was then requested and also denied by the hospital. In the end, both the mother and the newborn baby died.

Last year there were two cases that also unleashed heated public debate. In different provinces, two mentally disabled girls, one of whom was a minor, were raped and became pregnant as a result. But doctors refused to give them an abortion, and the families had to turn to the courts to obtain legal permission.

According to Health Ministry estimates, between 450,000 and 500,000 clandestine abortions are practiced every year in this country of 37 million, and the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses reports that 37 percent of pregnancies end in abortion, while 15 percent of the total involve girls under 20 years of age.

Although safe clandestine abortion services are available to those who can afford the high cost, poor women must resort to unsafe abortions practiced in unanitary conditions. A little over one-quarter (27 percent) of maternal deaths are the result of complications from unsafe abortions, the main cause of maternal mortality and the second cause of death among women of child-bearing age.

Nevertheless, public opinion has traditionally been dead-set against abortion -- resistance that seems to be yielding despite the still powerful influence of the Roman Catholic Church in Argentina.

Something similar is occurring in other Latin American countries. In Colombia, the circumstances under which abortion is legal were expanded a year ago; abortion was legalised in Mexico City in April; and authorities in Brazil have proposed putting the issue up to referendum, following the lead of Portugal, where people voted in February that parliament could legalise abortion on demand up to the 10th week of pregnancy.

"I am convinced that there is a greater openness now to debate," Cira Candia, secretary for gender equality and opportunity in the Central de Trabajadores de Argentina trade union federation, told IPS.

"Abortion in Argentina is no longer a taboo issue," she said. "The health minister has stated that it should be decriminalised, the media are discussing the question, and for the first time, INADI (the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism) made a presentation on the matter."

Candia was referring to remarks by Health Minister Ginés González García, who promoted the creation of the Programme for Sexual Health and Responsible Parenthood, ordered the distribution of a guide to improve the treatment received in public hospitals by women suffering post-abortion complications, and has repeatedly said that he backs the decriminalisation of abortion.

INADI, for its part, sent Congress and regional health ministries around the country a protocol this month for health care in cases in which abortion is legal, warning doctors that if they failed to live up to the regulations, they would be committing an act of discrimination by denying due treatment.

Rosenberg said the climate today for introducing a proposed draft law is indeed more positive, because of the growing support for legalised abortion as well as the participation in the debate by a broader range of social sectors. She pointed out that human rights groups, trade unions and political parties have incorporated it in their agendas.

"We used to have the personal support of individual members of more or less well-known human rights groups. But now, for example, the presidents of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo (two of Argentina's leading human rights organisations) have come out in favour of decriminalisation," she said.

The activist also said the national campaign for the right to legal, safe and free abortion, which is heavily promoted by the alliance of organisations that drafted the proposed new abortion legislation, has helped spark debate on the issue every time a controversial case has appeared, such as the rapes of the two mentally disabled girls.

"Actually, there have always been cases. What's happening now is that there is a current of opinion that seizes on the cases as indications of a serious problem of discrimination that should no longer be tolerated," said Rosenberg.