Officials in Buenos Aires to poll residents on the issue of abortion

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Aug 13, 2006 / 22:00 pm

The Health Minister of the Buenos Aires province in Argentina, Claudio Mate, announced that the local government will carry out a house-by-house survey to find out what residents think about abortion. The survey, he said, could be the basis for a push to legalize the practice.

Mate told reporters that, in addition to other questions, respondents will be asked to answer anonymously whether “they have obtained an abortion during the last year or previously at some point.”  The data will be used, he said, to determine if abortion should be legalized.  “Personally, I think that when a woman is going to have an abortion, one of the last things she considers is whether or not it is legal,” Mate said.

“The data we will collect will help contribute to the general discussion of the issue, because it is good that discussions be not only values-based but also fact-based, and that we know the magnitude of things and if the method we are using is saving lives.  If (an abortion ban) is only complicating things more, then let’s review what we have,” he said.

Mate has recently said, “I am not in favor of legalization without a serious study of the impact of that decision on fetal deaths, but I think that the law should be flexible and include other causes that would permit one to obtain an abortion and not be punished.”