Macri Repealed Abortion Protocol: Rubinstein's Resigned

After the controversy unleashed nationwide in Argentina, after the publishing on the Official Gazette and immediately repealed by the Government, of the Care Protocol for the Legal Interruption of Pregnancy (ILE), the secretary of Health, Adolfo Rubinstein handed in his resignation.

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His departure opens a new internal conflict in the governing coalition Cambiemos, which backs current President Mauricio Macri and his radical party allies, who since Wednesday went out of their way to defend Rubinstein.

The 61-year-old doctor, first in charge of the Ministry of Health, then downgraded to the Secretariat by Macri, decided to leave the position after the reversal that finally took place in the middle of several rumors. In the goodbye letter, he wrote he stated that the publication of the new protocol "had an unwanted political impact that ended up mixing the grounds for legal interruption with the debate on voluntary termination of pregnancy."

Rubinstein qualified the new protocol as "unfortunately repealed" while explaining that its main goal was "to guarantee the rights that are enshrined in our Criminal Code and endorsed by the FAL ruling of the Supreme Court of Justice." It was an update of the 2015 protocol gave a "legal and regulatory entity that several provinces claimed to reinforce the necessary actions of the outgoing team to perform ILE in pregnant people, including girls and adolescents, in safe conditions and with the best quality standards”.

The Executive's argument to derogate the Pregnancy Legal Interruption (ILE) protocol, is that it was published by Adolfo Rubinstein "without consulting the opinion of the hierarchical superiors."

Decree 785/2019 bears the signatures of Mauricio Macri; Cabinet chief Marcos Peña and Development Minister Carolina Stanley. In one of the last paragraphs remembers that "the President of the Nation is the supreme head of the Nation, head of the Government and political person in charge of the general administration of the country".

The text also states that the National Secretariat for Children, Adolescents and Family, the Federal Council for Children, Adolescents and Family, the National Disability Agency and the National Women's Institute did not intervene in the new protocol. However, the latter body expressed itself publicly in favor of the updated guide, as did its director, Fabiana Tuñez.

In an official statement, Tuñez expressed that despite not being consulted, she asked the chief of Cabinet to reactivate the protocol because it shrines the rights of women, girls and teenagers.