Chile's President Wants To Ease Abortion Ban, But Opponents Push Back
Chile's President Wants To Ease Abortion Ban, But Opponents Push Back
October 20, 2016·9:17 AM ET
Max Radwin
Chile's President Wants To Ease Abortion Ban, But Opponents Push Back
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According to a 2014 United Nations report, only five other countries also have an outright ban on abortion — Nicaragua, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, the Vatican and Malta. Chile's laws are some of the most strict, according the report. While most of these countries penalize women who get abortions, Chile imprisons both women and the doctors who administer abortions to sentences of three to 15 years.
"When we say that a woman is obligated to live with a pregnancy — that's a form of torture," said Rosario Puga, coordinator for the advocacy group Miles Chile, which supports abortion rights. "They don't have the legal right to go to a medical team for intervention."
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Chile's abortion law can be traced to the rule of President Augusto Pinochet, who criminalized all abortions in 1990, just months before his 17-year rule ended.
Prior to that, Chile allowed abortions in extreme cases and did not prosecute women who showed up at hospitals in need of treatment when an illicitly performed procedure had gone wrong.
More:
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/10/20/497983252/chiles-president-wants-to-ease-abortion-ban-but-opponents-push-back