The Upper Council of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) approved on Wednesday a resolution (with the vote of 23 of its 25 present members), by which it demanded a change in the current legislation and declared itself in favor of "the right to a free, safe, and legal abortion".
At the same time. it considered of "institutional interest" the activities that are carried out within the framework of the National Campaign for the Right to the Free, Safe, and Legal Abortion, a collective group of more than two hundred organizations that are working towards a normative change since five years ago.
The support for the resolution was wide. All the Deans voted in favor, with exception of the Medical Faculty one (Alfredo Buzzi, who abstained). The proposal was presented by a student representative, María Laura Casal. The only person that voted against the resolution was a professor of the Faculty of Medicine, Rodolfo Pedro Rothlin.
"The right to decide does not only circumscribe to the right to the interruption of the pregnancy, but includes also the possibility to decide whether to be a mother or not. It entails recognizing women as social subjects, as citizens and as capable moral agents that are able to decide if they desire (or not) to be mothers, the number of children that they desire to have and the temporary space among births", is one of the basis of the pronouncement stated by the Upper Councill.
The document is the result of a month of discussions in different Commissions. The resolution took as precedents one resolution issued by the National University from Cordoba in favor of the legal projects that promote abortion legalization and another voted by the Faculty of Social Sciences.
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It is still of concern that the only representative that voted against and the only Dean that abstained are both part of the Faculty of Medicine, an institution that should have a key role in the attention and support of legalized abortion and in the prevention of unwanted pregnancies.
