Argentina: Former First Lady Fabiola Yañez claims that former President Alberto Fernández pressured her to have an abortion

Former First Lady Fabiola Yañez stated in the document presented this Monday before the Court that Alberto Fernández forced her to undergo an abortion at the beginning of their relationship, in which – according to her complaint – there were episodes of “harassment and violence.” This is how they told it to THE NATION sources with access to the case.

What did Yañez mention in the writing?

The situation she described as “reproductive violence” is part of the story of the type of relationship she had with the former president. She indicated that after the abortion, she and the former president lived separately. Now, it is expected that on Tuesday, Yañez will give more details about that episode, for which there could be medical records that support her statements.

According to her story, Fernández – long before becoming president – rejected her when he found out about her pregnancy because they had barely started living together and he had not even introduced her to his then only son, Estanislao.

Sources with knowledge of the case suggest that There may have been another abortion during the years when Fernández was president of the nation.

In January 2021, during the former presidential couple’s first official trip to Chile, Fernández and Yañez took a photograph that fueled rumors that the first lady was pregnant. She appears in a salmon-colored dress, with a cut that gave rise to speculation.

But Yañez at that time had let it be known that it was a “quarantine belly”, alluding to the lack of activity during the period of social isolation imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Yañez’s pregnancy – with whom Francisco would be her son – was officially announced on September 23, 2021, when it was said that she was 10 weeks pregnant. And it happened days after the Olivos Gate scandal broke out, due to the dissemination of the photo of the then first lady’s birthday celebration at the presidential residence, on July 14, 2020.

At that time, a strict quarantine was in force, established by a Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) signed by Fernández himself. The case for violating isolation is on its way to being closed, after Fernández and his ex-wife paid a sum of money as compensation.

The photos of Yañez with bruises on her arm and a black eye, and the screenshots of the conversations between her and her husband, Alberto Fernández, ended up on the phone of presidential secretary María Cantero because Yañez herself sent them to her. According to the photos, the capture of the conversation between the presidential couple occurred on August 13, 2021, in the early morning. In it, the former first lady sent her photos of her marks and told her: “You have been hitting me for three days in a row.” These events, which are not denied by Fernández in the conversation, occurred during her pregnancy, according to the chronology released by the medical reports at that time.

Furthermore, this capture was made by Yañez on the same day (a few hours after dawn) in which the photos of the Olivos party became known.

On September 23 of that year, a statement from the Presidency announced that the presidential couple was expecting their first child. “It is reported that the first lady, Fabiola Yañez, is in her tenth week of pregnancy (only one). Her health is good and she is under strict medical supervision. The Presidential Medical Unit will provide information to the public regarding the progress of the pregnancy in order to communicate it accurately,” said the document, signed by Fernando Saavedra, director of the unit and today one of the people under suspicion due to the level of knowledge he might have about the situation of violence in Olivos.

Suspicions about the first lady’s pregnancy began on August 14 of that year, when Yañez posted on social media a photo of herself sitting with her hands on her belly. This image was taken one day after the date she reported as the date of the argument with her husband, which can be seen in the screenshots. According to the Presidency’s communication, the pregnancy began in mid-July, between the 12th and 18th. In August, the slight notoriety of a possible pregnancy was already arousing speculation.