IRISH politicians wrote to their Argentinian counterparts yesterday, urging them to back a landmark Bill that would legalise abortion ahead of today’s upper-house vote.

A cross-party group of 60 Irish parliamentarians signed the letter to Argentina’s 72-member Senate calling for a Yes vote on the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Bill, which would allow access to free, safe and legal abortions until the 14th week of pregnancy.

Abortions are currently illegal in Argentina unless there is a health risk or the pregnancy was caused by rape. 

However, around 500,000 women are forced to resort to “backstreet abortions,” with 3,000 dying as a result of unsafe procedures since 1983.

The Irish politicians said: “By continuing to criminalise abortion, the state is violating the human rights of women and girls.

“In Ireland and Argentina, it is clear that criminalising and prohibiting abortion has not stopped abortions. Instead, it has inflicted immense harm and cruelty on women and girls.

“The final approval of the Bill — and the lives of women and girls in Argentina — depends on your votes,” the letter read.

In May, Ireland voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to repeal the eighth amendment to the country’s constitution, which outlawed abortions. 

Ireland’s Catholic church lobbied for the ban’s retention and many see similarities between the Irish situation and the home country of Pope Francis.

The Pontiff denounced abortion in June, calling it the “white glove” equivalent to the nazi eugenics programme and urged families to accept the children that God gives them.

Argentina’s right-wing President Mauricio Macri has promised to sign the abortion legislation into law if the Senate endorses it.

The vote is expected to be close, with Senator Silvina Garcia Larraburu of the Front for Victory coalition indicating that she may drop her support for the Bill and vote No. 

This could hand opponents of the legislation a majority in the Senate, blocking the passage.

However, campaigners remain confident that the Bill will be approved, with the National Campaign for the Right to Free and Legal Legal Abortion saying there will be two million people on the streets of the capital Buenos Aires ahead of today’s vote.

“We know that legalised abortions will be the law in our country … the numbers are in our favour,” a spokeswoman said.