In Buenos Aires, women protested on Thursday in support of legalizing abortion.

This comes days ahead of an upper house vote on an abortion bill backed by the center left president, Alberto Fernandez, who called the procedure a public health issue.

Brenda Hamilton is one of the protesters.

Today we are once again on the streets because this is where we always win our rights.

We know that the debate in the Senate is much more difficult.

For that reason, we have to continue our efforts.

If passed, Argentina would become the first large Latin American nation to legalize the procedure on broad grounds, allowing women to abort a pregnancy at up to 14 weeks.

The bill is now more likely than ever to pass after going through the lower house last week, although it still faces challenges.

The Roman Catholic Church, influential in Latin America, prohibits abortions unless the pregnancy was a result of rape or puts a mother's health at risk.

Campaigners are calling for the church to stay out of politics.

Previous attempts to legalize abortion have failed, most notably in 2018 in a 38 to 31 narrow Senate vote under a conservative led government.

Campaigners say that the tie breaking vote, if needed, will go to former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, now vice president and Senate head.

The Senate is set to vote on the abortion bill December 29th.