Efforts to broaden abortion legalization continue in Chile

Santiago, Chile, Aug 5, 2018 / 15:42 pm

Pro-life groups in Chile are criticizing efforts to legalize abortion for any reason up to 14 weeks of pregnancy.

Guido Guirardi, president of the Senate Committee on Health, has pushed for the introduction of a bill to broaden the legalization of abortion, according to La Tercera news.

Guirardi said that there is no comparison between the value of "a complete person, a human being, a woman, who has consciousness, a life history, and a germ of life, which is not a person, which is the union of an ovum and a sperm, that has no consciousness, brain, feeling or life history."

Chilean president Sebastián Piñera has promised to oppose efforts to expand abortion in the country, saying he will do "everything that is necessary to defend life."

Last year, Chile approved the legalization of abortion on the grounds of rape, fetal non-viability, or risk to the life of the mother.

Elizabeth Bunster, director of Project Hope, told CNA's Spanish language sister agency ACI Prensa that the new bill "makes obvious what we were saying: that approving abortion on three grounds opened the door for abortion to be [completely] legalized."

Bunster emphasized that pro-life groups in the country continue their work by "accompanying women in crisis pregnancies and those who suffer from the consequences of abortion."

Rosario Vidal, president of the Women Reclaim Movement, warned that "the pro-abortion position has strong media backing and a lot of foreign funding."

It is important to address the roots of the problem, and various pressures that women face to abort, she said.

"You have to understand that abortion is not a freely made decision, nor does a woman have an abortion to make a decision about her body."

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.