A/HRC/35/30/Add.3 E. Sexual education, legal abortion, early pregnancy and maternal mortality 23. Law No. 26.150 (2006) established the National Programme for Comprehensive Sex Education and stipulates that all students have the right to receive comprehensive sexual education in all public and private educational institutions. However, reportedly, there has been a persistent lack of resources since the law was enacted and its implementation has faced resistance from families and teachers. In addition, the law has not been implemented in several provinces. 22 The unavailability of comprehensive sexual education has constituted an obstacle for women and girls to enjoy, on a basis of equality, the rights to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children and to have access to information, education and the means to enable them to exercise those rights, as provided for under article 16 (e) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. 24. Abortion is criminalized under article 85 of the Criminal Code. 23 Both the person performing the abortion and the woman who causes her own abortion or gives her consent for the abortion to be performed may be sanctioned. However, article 86 provides that an abortion performed by a qualified medical doctor with the consent of the pregnant woman is not punishable if it is done in order to avoid danger to the life or health of the mother and if the danger cannot be avoided by other means; or if the pregnancy is a result of rape or assault to a woman with a mental disability or mental illness, and her legal representative consents to the abortion. The general criminalization of abortion, with certain unclear and narrowly defined exceptions, coupled with the practice of medical practitioners of seeking judicial authorization before performing an abortion, rendered abortions unavailable, even under the exceptions. 25. The Supreme Court of Argentina, in a landmark ruling on 13 March 2012, 24 stated that prior judicial authorization was not necessary for an abortion to be performed in cases of rape and that provincial governments should ensure access to legal abortions in such cases. Based on that ruling, in June 2015, the Ministry of Health issued the “Protocol for the comprehensive care of persons with the right to the legal interruption of pregnancy”.25 However, to date, only 8 of the 24 provincial jurisdictions had issued protocols on nonpunishable abortions.26 In October 2015, the Office of the Ombudsman issued resolution No. 65/1527 recommending that the provincial health authorities issue protocols compliant with the national protocol. 26. The absence of protocols in the majority of the provinces, coupled with the frequent refusal of doctors to perform abortions based on conscientious objection, resulted in a high number of unsafe abortions and contributed to high maternal mortality in Argentina. 28 According to some estimates, half a million illegal abortions took place every year in Argentina, representing about 40 per cent of all pregnancies. 29 The Special Rapporteur 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Notably, the Province of Corrientes declared itself the “pro-life province” in 2015 and is not implementing the federal law. Argentina, Criminal Code, Law No. 11.179 of 21 December 1984, last amended 19 December 2012. See Argentina, Supreme Court of Justice, F., A. L. s/ medida autosatisfactiva, decision adopted on 13 March 2012. Argentina, Ministry of Health, Protocolo para la atención integral de las personas con derecho a la interrupción legal del embarazo. Available at http://despenalizacion.org.ar/pdf/publicaciones/ ProtocoloANP2015.pdf. According to the Office of the National Ombudsman, eight provinces have fully complied with the Supreme Court ruling; eight have complied partially; and eight do not have protocols, namely, Catamarca, Corrientes, Formosa, Mendoza, San Juan, San Luis, Santiago del Estero and Tucumán. Argentina, Office of the National Ombudsman, resolution DPN No. 65/15 of 5 October 2015. Available at www.dpn.gob.ar/documentos/20160927_30933_556933.pdf. Silvina Ramos and others, “A comprehensive assessment of maternal deaths in Argentina: translating multicentre collaborative research into action”, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, vol. 85, No. 8 (August 2007). Available at www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/85/8/06-032334/en/. Human Rights Watch, “Abortion: Argentina”. Available at https://www.hrw.org/legacy/women/ abortion/argentina.html. 7