Chilean women's lives at risk with 'backdoor' restrictions on new abortion law
APRIL 5, 2018 / 4:55 PM / 3 DAYS AGO
Anastasia Moloney
BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Women and girls in Chile, including rape victims, will find it harder to access legal abortions - after a total ban was lifted in August - as the government has started allowing clinics to deny services on moral grounds, campaigners said on Thursday.
The new law, allowing abortions when women’s lives are in danger or if a fetus is unviable or the result of rape, was welcomed by rights groups in a region with some of the world’s most restrictive abortion laws.
It legalized abortion for the first time in Chile, one of several Latin American countries that had a total ban.
But Chile’s health ministry announced in March, when the conservative government of Sebastian Pinera took power, that private clinics could refuse to carry out the procedure on grounds of conscientious objection.
More:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chile-abortion-women/chilean-womens-lives-at-risk-with-backdoor-restrictions-on-new-abortion-law-idUSKCN1HC2VI
