Why Dueling was Legal in Uruguay from 1920 to 1992 | Dr. David Parker 

There is a long history of legalizing things that are a "social fact" even if their are considered wrong in Uruguay. A case of that same period was prostitution. The argument was that making it illegal was just making prostitutes been worst of because they couldn´t get government protection. After legalization brothels had pay taxes and social security and prostitutes had to go to medical check regularly. Nowadays there is the same approach for abortion being legal: it is better to than having poor women dying because of an illegal hidden abortion under bad sanitary conditions while rich women can just fly to another country or pay a good illegal clinic.