In February, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet sent Congress a proposal for legislation that would decriminalize abortion when the woman’s life is threatened by a pregnancy, if the fetus will not survive or in cases of rape.
- Chilean president Michelle Bachelet is pictured in Guatemala City shortly after sending legislation to Congress proposing to liberalize the country’s strict ban on abortion.
The bill would allow for each individual provider to refuse to perform abortions for conscience reasons—except in medical emergencies, in which case the provider would be expected to perform the abortion, El País reported. Nevertheless, Ignacio Sánchez, rector of Chile’s Catholic University, said that the health network connected to the university would not follow this directive: “Our principles and values are not going to change because of a particular legislative act.” According to a poll conducted by Plaza Pública Cadem, 62 percent of respondents did not agree with the university’s refusal to provide abortions under any circumstances.
According to El País, Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati of Santiago spoke about the “grave” case of Catholic legislators who vote for abortion decriminalization: “I won’t say it would be excommunication in all cases nor that it would be automatic.”
Sen. Guido Girardi called upon the country’s Catholic hierarchy to abstain from intervention into the legislative process, telling the media network Bio Bio Chile, “The church cannot, it has no right to, impose its point of view on all of society…. This is a democratic country.”
According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, nearly 400,000 women arrived at a public hospital seeking postabortion care from 2000–2012.
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