Chile to end blanket ban on abortions.
| Autor | Witte-Lebhar, Benjamin |
After a years-long debate in Congress and a make-it-or-break-it ruling last month by the Tribunal Constitucional (Constitutional Court, TC), Chile is finally set to scale back its zero-exceptions ban on abortion.
The TC decision, reached Aug. 21 by a vote of six to four, clears the way for abortions to be allowed in three specific circumstances: when a pregnancy puts the mother's life is at risk, involves a non-viable fetus, or is the result of rape or incest. The judgment also, however, gives medical practitioners the option to conscientiously object to the practice and thus exempt themselves from having to administer abortions.
The landmark ruling came nearly three weeks after the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Congress, gave final legislative approval to the initiative, which President Michelle Bachelet submitted more than two years ago in the form of a bill (NotiSur, Feb. 13, 2015). The legislation cleared the Senate in July, with 18 votes in favor and 16 against.
The bill's approval in Congress was itself a major milestone for Chile, where conservatives and centrists, normally on opposite sides of the political divide, had long formed a common front to defend the blanket abortion ban (NotiSur, April 8, 2016). But before Bachelet and her allies could celebrate in earnest, they still needed to get--as part of a deal worked out with opponents--the three-exceptions-initiative past the TC.
The tribunal hasn't, in the past, shied away from challenging the president's policy initiatives. And so there was little guarantee, analysts noted, that it would uphold the abortion-law changes, especially since just two of the tribunal's 10 members are women. One of those women, furthermore, was Maria Luisa Brahm, designated to the post by Bachelet's conservative predecessor, Sebastian Pinera (2010-2014), whom she served as an adviser.
But after hearing testimony from 130 experts and advocates from both sides in the debate, six of the TC's justices--including Brahm--ruled in favor of the contentious bill, pulling the plug once and for all on an abortion policy that dated back to 1989, when it was pushed through in the waning days of the Gen. Augusto Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990).
The only thing missing now is a signature from Bachelet, who is expected to enact the historic legislation before the end of the month and thus remove Chile from the short list of countries, most of them in Latin America, that continue to outlaw abortions outright.
...Para continuar leyendo
Solicita tu pruebaCOPYRIGHT GALE, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
