More than 5,000 annulments are granted annually. Beneficiaries include President Ricardo Lagos and even some legislators who have expressed doubts about the bill.
Some supporters of divorce contend that the annulment process discriminates against poor or uneducated couples who cannot afford lawyers, and, indeed, the beneficiaries are overwhelmingly from the middle and upper classes.
Church leaders seeking to have an effect on the new law want to broaden the grounds for annul-ment, though, which could have the effect of making an annulment easier to obtain than a divorce.
"There are people who are saying that with all the obstacles they are trying to place on this law, we'd be better off with no divorce and continue with annulment," said Rosalba Todaro, a researcher at the Center for Women's Studies.
"I don't agree, but since the Senate is more conservative than the House, there is a risk that the final result will be something quite different from what we have seen," she said.
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