Argentina’s Firebrand President Condemns the Davos Abortion Agenda

Argentine President Javier Milei’s speech at the annual World Economic Forum conference in Davos, Switzerland, has gone viral. Milei called out the assembled elites for their drift towards collectivism, socialism, and their commitment to “population control” and “the bloody abortion agenda.” In doing so, he spoke for millions.

Milei, who was sworn in on December 10, is a pro-life libertarian who promised during his campaign to consider a plebiscite to repeal Argentina’s recent legalization of abortion, which was opposed by a majority of Argentines. His opposition to both abortion and the LGBT agenda—he eliminated the nation’s Women, Gender, and Diversity Ministry within days of being sworn in—has alarmed activists committed to the global advance of a socially liberal agenda.

During his speech, Milei warned:

A conflict presented by socialists is that of humans against nature, claiming that we human beings damage the planet, which should be protected at all costs, even going as far as advocating population control mechanisms or the bloody abortion agenda. Unfortunately, these harmful ideas have taken a stronghold in our society. Neo-Marxists have managed to co-opt the common sense of the Western world, and this they have achieved by appropriating the media, culture, universities, and international organizations.

The latter case is the most serious one probably because these are institutions that have an enormous influence on the political and economic decisions of countries that make up the multilateral organizations. Fortunately, there are more and more of us who are daring to make our voices heard because we are seeing that if we don’t truly and decisively fight against these ideas, the only possible fate for us is to have increasing levels of state regulations, socialism, poverty, and less freedom, therefore having worse standards of living.

Milei even took on feminism in his critique of progressive ideology. “The first of these new battles was the ridiculous and unnatural fight between man and women,” he declared. “Libertarianism already provides for the equality of the sexes. The cornerstone of [this] creed says that all humans are created equal, that we all have the same inalienable rights granted by the Creator, including life, freedom, and ownership [of private property].” It was a radical and countercultural statement—the Creator doesn’t come up much at Davos these days.

Milei’s speech was a direct rebuke to the population control advocates at Davos, referred to by Politico as “The Davos do-gooders.” Bill Gates, a longtime backer of abortion groups, called for “global health” spending in developing countries to “get population growth to a steady state” on the opening day of the Forum. Al Gore, who also supports pushing population control measures, told attendees (once again) that radical action was needed to combat climate change; Jane Goodall, a third “do-gooder,” concurred. Goodall is also an abortion activist; she publicly condemned the overturn of Roe v. Wade, stating that abortion is essential to the “protection of … the environment.”

Milei’s views differ starkly, and he laid out his anti-abortion position in an interview last fall with Tucker Carlson. 

As a libertarian, I believe liberalism entails the unrestricted respect for the lives of others, rooted in the principle of non-aggression and the defense of life, liberty, and property,” he explained. “If we believe these ideas of liberty, one of the most fundamental aspects is to defend the right to life. Philosophically speaking, I am in favour of the right to life. Beyond that, there is the scientific justification. It is a fact that life begins at conception. It’s at that very instant that a new being begins to evolve with its own unique DNA.

It is true that women have the right to their own bodies, but the child in a woman’s body is not her body. That child is not her body. That makes abortion a murder, enabled and aggravated by a power imbalance against a child that has no way to defend itself. Beyond that, there is a matter of mathematics. Life is a continuum with two quantum leaps—birth, and death. Any interruption in the interim is murder.

That qualifies as one of the best defences of the pro-life position I’ve ever heard from a politician. Javier Milei is one of the most articulate anti-abortion leaders on the world stage, and thus his presence at the World Economic Forum is genuinely significant. There are many elites gathered in Switzerland this week who are committed to defending the environment. In his speech, Milei made it clear that he was there to defend the people—including the most vulnerable and voiceless members of our societies: children in the womb.