Chile takes steps to legalize abortion in certain cases

[sandensea]

Chile’s senate has narrowly passed a bill to legalize abortion in certain cases, in a win for President Michelle Bachelet’s center-left coalition and for rights groups that have campaigned for years against the country’s strict ban.

After a long and sometimes fractious overnight debate, the senate voted to legalize abortion when a woman’s life is in danger, when a fetus is non-viable and when a pregnancy results from rape.

Chile is one of only a handful of countries worldwide where abortion is illegal without exception. The ban was put in place during the closing days of Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s 1973-90 dictatorship, and Bachelet pledged reform when she took office for the second time in 2014.

The University of Chile estimates that up to 100,000 abortions are performed annually in the country, compared to around 250,000 live births.

The bill will now be returned to Chile’s lower house to be reconciled with a version passed there. That is expected to happen within the week, allowing it to become law.

At: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/19/chile-abortion-mother-rape-life-legalization

[Judi Lynn]

1. Wow. So the dirty old torture-loving, murderous kleptomaniac fascist is behind the ban. Figures.

Why not make things for the women of Chile just a little bit more goddawful on his way out?

He was careful to run for the Senate so no one could arrest him for ages for his crimes against humanity.

It took a former prisoner, who was tortured, along with her mother, who lost her Air Force General father to Pinochet's torturers when he died at their hands, to overturn at least some important parts of this ban.

Hopefully, next time Chile elects a progressive, they can finish the job which Pinochet made necessary in his war against the human race.

At least these three conditions will be far better than the knife in the back situation which was in place before this legislation.

Even now, the Guardian article says it was still a narrow vote.

Far too many fascists still flapping around in Chile. At least they couldn't stop this important progress for the women of the country.