Initiative will face a difficult path, as President Gabriel Boric has no majority in any of the chambers of Parliament, where opposition is against the expansion of the right to the procedure
The Chilean government announced on Wednesday (28), that it sent a bill to Congress to legalize abortion until 14 weeks of gestation, one of the main promises with which the leftist came to power in 2022. No abortion has been allowed since 2017 for three reasons: risk to mother’s life, fetal and rape. “Thirty -six years after therapeutic abortion was banned in our country by dictatorial decree, today we will open the discussion in Congress,” said women Minister Antonia Orellana, at a news conference. She referred to one of the last measures taken by the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) before delivering power to a democratic government. According to the Ministry of Health, Chile records four deaths per year due to clandestine abortions. The bill, which will be debated in the Legislature, was presented a year after Boric announced its intention to decriminalize abortion during its presentation to Congress.
However, the initiative will face a difficult path, as the president has no majority in any of the parliament chambers, where opposition is against the expansion of the right to abortion. The Orellana Minister acknowledged that it would be “naive” to believe that the bill would complete her discussion during the Boric government, which ends in March 2026. The decriminalization of abortion in all its forms is a longtime claim for feminist groups in Chile and which has the support of the president. According to the Center for Public Studies, 34% of the Chilean population believes abortion should be an option for women in all cases. While 50% believes it should be allowed only in special cases.
*With information from AFP
Posted by Fernando Dias
