With 232 votes in favor, Argentina’s lower House gave half approval to a bill that stops surgical sterilization of people with disabilities without their consent.
The Chamber of Deputies gave a half sanction to a project that modifies Law 26,130 related to forced surgical contraception interventions and people with disabilities.
“The objective of this law is that people with disabilities cannot undergo surgery for contraception without having clearly expressed their will. It is they who must decide,” explained the head of the Health Commission Pablo Yedlin.
The new law aims to prevent “forced sterilizations” in those people who have some type of disability through methods such as tubal ligation or vasectomy. It would make “informed consent” the legal practice, meaning the person must give their consent to carry out the procedure.
“All people with disabilities, without exception, have the right to give their informed consent to access surgical contraception interventions, by themselves and on equal terms with other people, in accordance with the provisions of Article 2 of the present law. In no case is judicial authorization required,” stated Article 3 of the new law.
The legislation had the endorsement of 232 deputies from all sectors, with a “no” vote from Deputy of the Frente de Todos, Esteban Bogdanich, and an abstention by the Neuquén legislator of the PRO, Francisco Sánchez.
“We have the obligation to put an end to this terrible situation of discrimination that prevents people with disabilities from fully exercising their sexual and reproductive rights,” said Deputy Claudia Najul (UCR).
Deputy of the Civic Coalition, Leonor Martínez Villada, specified that “we seek to modify articles 2 and 3 of Law 26,130 to order the internal legal system with the Human Rights convention of people with disabilities. At this time, people with disabilities can, with informed consent, they freely access surgical contraception practices and have the freedom and autonomy to decide on tubal ligation or vasectomy. ”
When debating the law in the House, Deputy Najul stated, “the law 26,130 on surgical contraception, … Although this law represented a very important advance in matters of sexual and reproductive rights, facilitating family planning, it also unfortunately lent itself to situations that constituted a great violation of dignity and a serious violation of the human rights of people with disabilities.”
“Under this law, forced sterilizations, not consensual, were carried out in our country to many people with disabilities, since the wording of this norm endorsed it. They are asked whether or not they want to undergo these practices, in many cases they are not even informed, much less are they asked for an informed consent. His will is absolutely superseded by his legal representative or by the authorization of a judge,” Najul added.
The modified text of the Law specifies that “the intention was to bring the law into line with the provisions on the capacity of people in the current Civil and Commercial Code and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, complying with a claim that people with disabilities have been making in pursuit of their autonomy, for several years.”
It details that “the Civil and Commercial Code of the Nation now in force adopts a new conception of capacity, it is no longer an attribute that is granted or taken away from a person but a human right and consequently incapacity it is foreseen as an exception and a judicial sentence must be issued, and capacity as a human right is presumed.
“The idea that one acted on behalf of ‘the incapable person’ without even consulting them is no longer a legal option, capacity is a human right and as such its exercise is guaranteed. In this sense, the new wording is proposed obliging enforcement authority to provide accessible information to people with disabilities according to their needs, so that they fully understand what the intervention consists of and what are the consequences of carrying it out.”
The modified law passes onto the next phase for consideration.
