Instead, Atwood said that the abortion question should be framed by asking: “What kind of country do you want to live in? One in which every individual is free to make decisions concerning his or her health and body, or one in which half the population is free and the other half is enslaved?

“Women who cannot make their own decisions about whether or not to have babies are enslaved, because the State claims ownership of their bodies and the right to dictate the use to which their bodies must be put,” she continued.

If the Argentinian state insisted on “enforced childbirth”, Atwood said, it should also “pay for prenatal care, for the birth itself, for postnatal care, and – for babies that are not sold off to richer families — for the cost of bringing up the child”. It’s a powerful argument, and we recommend reading Atwood’s essay in full.

Despite the devastating result of the vote, pro-choice activists in Argentina have vowed to keep fighting for reproductive rights until abortion is legalised.

“It will happen because that’s the world – to increase rights,” Celia Szusterman, trustee of the UK board of women’s development organisation Pro-Mujer, told CNN. “And this is one of the fundamental rights that is still not available to women in Latin America.”

Images: Getty Images

Margaret Atwood describes Argentina’s abortion laws as “slavery”