Fernández, a centre-left law school professor, campaigned as a champion of marginalised communities, drawing a contrast with his wealthy, centre-right predecessor, Mauricio Macri. He placed gender and sexual orientation disparity alongside social, economic and racial inequality and promised to tackle them.

But he took office a year ago during a deep recession and the coronavirus epidemic struck Argentina within three months of his swearing in. The country imposed one of the world's longest and strictest lockdowns, but still the virus spread, leaving it among the nations with the highest death rates per capita.

Despite these hardships, Fernandez, 61, kept gender and sexual orientation parity a priority in his government, surprising even some activists aligned with his initiatives.

Fernández's 2021 budget identifies more than 15 per cent of projected spending as going to initiatives that would further gender parity, including funding violence prevention programs, bringing women who were not part of the formal labor force into the pension system and fighting human trafficking.

Loading

The abortion bill would make it legal to end pregnancies up to 14 weeks.

Abortion in Argentina is now allowed only in cases of rape or if the pregnancy poses a risk to the mother's health. In practice though, doctors, particularly in rural areas, are often reluctant to practice even legal abortions for fear of repercussions.