President Javier Milei said he considers abortion, which is legal in Argentina, to be "murder", in a speech to high school students on Wednesday.

The 53-year-old libertarian, who is known to be anti-abortion but has not publicly spoken about the issue at length since taking office, was addressing young people at a Catholic school in Buenos Aires where he had studied.

"I warn you that to me abortion is murder ... and I can prove it to you from a mathematical, philosophical and liberal perspective," he said in a speech two days before International Women's Day.

Milei said those who backed the legalization of abortion in Argentina were "murderers."

Since taking office three months ago, Milei has eliminated the women's affairs ministry and recently shut Argentina's national anti-discrimination agency, which his spokesman said served "absolutely no purpose."

The government says these moves are part of efforts to slash spending amid a severe economic crisis which has seen inflation soar to 250 percent year-on-year.

Milei's government last month banned the use of gender-inclusive language in the military and the entire public sector.

During a speech to world leaders in Davos in January, he took aim at socialism, "radical feminism", the "bloody agenda of abortion" and "social justice".

With abortion and women's rights coming under attack in several countries, notably the United States, France on Monday became the first country in the world to enshrine the right to the procedure in the constitution.

Argentina legalized abortion in December 2020 until the 14th week of pregnancy, despite strong pushback from Evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics.

In February a woman lawmaker from Milei's La Libertad Avanza party introduced a bill in Congress seeking to reverse the legalization of abortion and have it declared a crime.

However, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said the initiative was "not part of the president's agenda and is not promoted by the executive branch" as "we have more urgent issues."

IOL