Pro-life Argentines celebrated late Wednesday as the nation’s senate voted 38-31 against a bill legalizing abortion on demand for up to 14 weeks of pregnancy.

Under current law, abortion is legal only in cases of rape, severe disabilities, and threat to the life of the mother. The bill which would have drastically expanded its availability was first passed in the lower house of the legislature, and received the support of President Mauricio Macri, who had promised to sign it.

The legislation was heavily opposed by many doctors and medical groups, as well as pro-life activists and the Catholic Church, which has deliberately taken a significant role in the battle over the issue. Argentina is the birthplace of Pope Francis, who reportedly personally requested pro-life legislators to lobby senators to vote against the bill. Priests and bishops also spoke out publicly in their churches, and held a “mass for life” during the senate debate. After the vote, many did not shy away from taking credit for the result.

Speaking on abortion, Pope Francis has said that “what the Nazis did to purify the race… we do the same thing but with white gloves.”

Those in favor of legalizing abortion in Argentina include international organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which is funded partially by George Soros. Domestically, radical feminists have continued to demonstrate for years prior, staging often obscene, violent protests. Topless activists have harassed praying pro-lifers and vandalized buildings, including cathedrals, by throwing rocks, Molotovs, bottles, tampons, feces, and balloons filled with paint. Public messages, chanted or painted onto buildings, have included “lesbianize yourself,” “death to the Pope,” and “we want to be whores, transvestites and lesbians. Legal abortion in any place.”

On Wednesday after the vote, pro-abortion protestors attacked celebrating pro-life Argentines and clashed with police, throwing firebombs and bottles, setting up barricades, vandalizing structures, and starting street fires.

Public opinion remains deeply divided, a warning that this is likely not the end of the issue, and Argentina faces difficult times ahead. Abortion activists remain committed to fight, and opinion polls showed that around 60% actually supported the bill. However, for the moment, Argentina has accomplished what Ireland could not, and stemmed the tide of the death cult which is now seeping from the decaying West into other formerly civilized, religious societies.