Chilean President Michelle Bachelet on Saturday unveiled plans to ease a complete ban on abortions in the socially conservative South American country.
In a televised address, leftist Bachelet said she was sending Congress a draft bill that would permit abortion when a mother’s life is at risk, a fetus will not survive the pregnancy, or in the case of rape.
The outright ban on terminations was put in place during the final days of Augusto Pinochet’s 1973 to 1990 dictatorship. A number of attempts since then to legalize abortion have been blocked by right-wing legislators.
Photo: EPA / Ximena Navarro / Presidency of Chile
“I know this is a sensitive issue,” said Bachelet, a trained pediatrician. “There isn’t always agreement on issues that relate to each person’s conscience.”
She announced in May last year that she would push such legislation. Following her signature on the draft bill, the document now goes to congress.
Bachelet’s proposal is likely to face an arduous debate in congress, where several opposition legislators and even some members of her New Majority bloc have already announced they will fight the change.
Campaigners supporting Bachelet’s proposal say the ban on terminations forces many women to endure dangerous back-street abortions in often-unsafe conditions.
Estimates on how many illegal abortions are carried out in Chile range from 15,000 to 160,000 per year.
According to figures released by Bachelet, about 16,500 women are hospitalized each year in Chile due to life-threatening complications of pregnancy or because of malformations of a fetus.
She said about 500 deaths are recorded each year from fetal malformation
In a country where the Catholic Church retains a strong influence, anti-abortion activists remain a powerful lobby group.
“It astounds me that today we’re putting the right to liberty before the right to life,” Senator Jacqueline Van Rysselberghe of the right-wing UDI party said.
Before the total ban, abortions had been permitted under special circumstances, including when there were serious health risks associated with a pregnancy.
Attitudes have been slowly softening toward abortion in Chile, in part because of headline-grabbing scandals including the 2013 case of an 11-year-old girl who became pregnant after she was raped by her stepfather, according to authorities.
“This is a step in the right direction. But the law also has to assure that women, regardless of their economic situation, can access abortion services,” said Ana Piquer, head of Amnesty International in Chile, referring to concerns that public and private health insurance policies may not cover all costs.
Bachelet has been pushing legislation through congress at a dizzying pace, promising to upend some of the dictatorship’s longest-lasting legacies and to bridge Chile’s wide income inequality gap.
She has championed tax reform, a revamping of the nation’s education system, an overhaul of Pinochet-era electoral rules and a law allowing civil unions for same-sex and unmarried heterosexual couples.
Additional reporting by AP
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