Argentina rejects legalizing abortion, but flings open once-taboo topic

Noelia Rodriguez sat at a table in front of Argentina’s Congress this week, decorating and selling the green scarves that have become synonymous with the movement to decriminalize abortion in Argentina.

Ms. Rodriguez, who studies communications, is outraged that more than 3,000 women have died from clandestine abortions in her country in the last 35 years, according to activists’ estimates.

But believing in the right to a legal abortion is an opinion she’s kept largely to herself among her devoutly Catholic family – until this summer.

Early Thursday morning, after 16 hours of debate, Argentina’s conservative-leaning Senate rejected a bill to legalize abortion for pregnancies up to 14 weeks. But the flood of attention to the historically taboo topic in the lead-up to the vote has opened new