Pro-abortion lawmakers in Chile are seeking to legalize abortion through 14 weeks, even after voters rejected the last effort to do so in 2022.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- In 2017, Chile legalized abortion through 12 weeks in cases of rape, a ‘non-viable’ diagnosis for the child, and when the mother’s life is at risk.
- In 2021, pro-abortion Gabriel Boric was elected president, after promising to expand abortion.
- There is little support for increased abortion access, as 62% of voters rejected making abortion a fundamental right in 2022.
- With one year left in his term, lawmakers in Chile have introduced a bill to allow abortion through 14 weeks for any reason — a bill meant to fulfill Boric’s campaign promise to expand abortion.
THE DETAILS:
Legislators in Chile have introduced a bill that would allow abortion through 14 weeks for any reason. It is allegedly meant to fulfill President Gabriel Boric’s campaign pledge to expand abortion before he leaves office next year.
Minister of Women and Gender Equity Antonia Orellana said the bill would be submitted to the Chamber of Deputies in the next few days, after a year’s worth of clandestine work behind the scenes. “Thirty-six years after therapeutic abortions were banned in our country… we are opening the debate in Congress,” she said.
Some celebrated the announcement; Deputy Helia Molina (PPD) said, “It’s tremendous news for the country that we are starting work on a legal abortion law.”
However, others pushed back. “The government is legislating outside the priorities of the people,” Deputy Roberto Arroyo (PSC) said. “Chile rejects the culture of death and any government that promotes it.” Arroyo was referring to a vote in 2022, in which citizens rejected an amendment legalizing abortion.
THE BACKSTORY:
A poll by the Centre for Public Studies shows that only 34% of Chileans back legalized abortion, and 50% believe abortion should only be legal in certain circumstances.
In 2021, progressive Boric was elected as president, even as an outspoken abortion supporter. Chile had legalized abortion through 12 weeks in 2017 in very limited circumstances: when the mother’s life is at risk, if the child is deemed to be non-viable, or in cases of rape. Boric had campaigned for abortion to be further legalized, writing on his campaign website:
“We will support the historical demand for legal, free, safe and free abortion, overcoming criminalization and putting the decision of the pregnant person at the center. We will guarantee access to contraception in primary health care (PHC);
we will introduce a bill for a model of Comprehensive, inclusive and non-sexist Sexual Education that builds a future without violence;
and we will promote a law to guarantee the voluntary interruption of pregnancy as a guaranteed health benefit, providing health centers with recommended methods of uterine evacuation (mifepristone, misoprostol and MVA).”
In 2022, 62% of Chilean voters rejected a new draft constitution that would have enshrined abortion as a fundamental right in a general referendum.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
Despite low support for legalized abortion, Boric is determined to see it legalized for any reason through 14 weeks before his term ends in March 2026.
Orellan admitted that it would be “naive” to think that abortion would be expanded before Boric’s presidency comes to a close, as his party faces an uphill battle to get the bill through parliament, thanks to strong conservative opposition.
