Guardian News and Media
Stockholm
Chile MPs are expected to consider legalising abortions in certain circumstances. Currently, abortions are banned even if the women’s life is at risk.
Complications from illegal abortions performed in Chile account for about 40% of maternal deaths, according to the UN.
There has been speculation that Michelle Bachelet’s election win in December could lead to a change in the abortion law.
Bachelet took up her presidency in March vowing to rewrite the constitution. She is a socialist, former paediatrician and was the first executive director of UN Women, when it was created in 2010.
However, some rights activists remain sceptical that Bachelet would tackle such a controversial issue so soon after taking office.
The president of the government’s health committee, Marco Nunez, who takes over as head of parliament’s lower house next year, said Bachelet’s centre-left Nueva Mayoria bloc’s majority in both parliamentary chambers offered a conducive environment for change.
Nunez, in Stockholm this week for the International Parliamentarians’ Conference that is assessing progress on the implementation of 20-year-old targets on women’s rights, said he was confident legislation that would allow abortion when a woman’s life was at risk, in cases of rape or when the foetus was not viable, would be voted into law next year.
“For the first time in 20 years we have a real majority to make changes. We are going to start discussions in July. We have the majority to vote and pass the law in the lower chamber, but also in the senate,” said Nunez, a former medical doctor.
“From an economic point of view, we have free trade agreements, we’re reducing inequality now, and reducing poverty, but we still have a conservative constitution written under (Augusto) Pinochet. Conservative groups are pressing us to keep the status quo.”
Nunez does not, however, underestimate the challenge advocates will face. In addition to conservative groups, some politicians in Bachelet’s ruling coalition are also expected to vote against the move, and the media is expected to take a pro-life stance.
Nunez said the mainstream media tended to label politicians who speak out in favour of abortion. “We have a huge battle. It’s going to be a scandal. Some conservative MPs say they are pro-life and we are the messengers of death. That this is the first step towards total abortion and free sex for adolescents,” Nunez said.
“But we have to stand up to these people and groups,” he said.
Karol Cariola, who was a key figure in the 2011 student protests in Chile and was elected to parliament in November, said changes to the abortion law were part of a package of reforms to improve women’s sexual and reproductive health in the country.