Chile’s Government Gave Out Flawed Birth Control Pills Which Caused Dozens of Unplanned Pregnancies

By Mary Anne Webber
Mar 04, 2021

The government of Chile has provided hundreds of thousands of defective birth control pills to women that resulted in at least 140 unplanned pregnancies.

The birth control pill packs, which went by the name of Anulette CD, were packaged incorrectly, with the sugar pills or placebo, in the place of the active pills.

Continued: https://www.latinpost.com/articles/149505/20210304/chile-government-flawed-birth-control-pills-unplanned-pregnancies.htm


Defective Birth Control Blamed for Scores of Unplanned Pregnancies in Chile

The public health system delivered, and then quietly recalled, 276,890 potentially flawed packets of birth control pills. At least 140 women believe they got pregnant because of the error.

by Ernesto Londoño, New York Times
March 2, 2021

There had to be a mistake, Melanie Riffo thought, staring in disbelief at the result of her pregnancy test: Positive.

She had been taking her birth control pills without fail, Ms. Riffo said. She and her boyfriend were careful. He’d even been told by doctors that a childhood ailment could have left him infertile.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/02/world/americas/chile-women-birth-control.html


Women’s movement sweeps Latin America to loosen abortion restrictions

Dec 1, 2020
By Daina Beth Solomon and Cassandra Garrison

MEXICO CITY/BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Several weeks pregnant and about to start a job away from home, Lupita Ruiz had no doubts about wanting to end her pregnancy, despite knowing she could face jail time for having an abortion under a law in her state of Chiapas in southern Mexico.   

She asked friends for help until she found a doctor two hours from her town who agreed to do it in secret.

Continued: https://www.capebretonpost.com/news/world/womens-movement-sweeps-latin-america-to-loosen-abortion-restrictions-526103/


Chilean women’s lives at risk with ‘backdoor’ restrictions on new abortion law

Chilean women's lives at risk with 'backdoor' restrictions on new abortion law

Anastasia Moloney
April 5, 2018

BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Women and girls in Chile, including rape victims, will find it harder to access legal abortions - after a total ban was lifted in August - as the government has started allowing clinics to deny services on moral grounds, campaigners said on Thursday.

The new law, allowing abortions when women’s lives are in danger or if a fetus is unviable or the result of rape, was welcomed by rights groups in a region with some of the world’s most restrictive abortion laws.

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chile-abortion-women/chilean-womens-lives-at-risk-with-backdoor-restrictions-on-new-abortion-law-idUSKCN1HC2VI


Chile – Mobilisation against restrictions on the new abortion law

Chile- Mobilisation against restrictions on the new abortion law

by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
Apr 3, 2018

In Chile, the feminist movement is mobilising to defend the new abortion law and ensure that access to legal abortion services becomes a reality for the women who need them. However, in March, soon after the new government took power, although they had said they would not attempt to withdraw the law, the new Minister of Health Santelices moved quickly to modify the regulations for implementing the law that had been adopted under Michelle Bachelet.

Specifically, he removed a paragraph from the regulations which had prevented health institutions that receive public funds or have agreements with the state and who provide obstetric and gynaecological care to declare conscientious objection to abortion.

Continued: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/chile-mobilisation-against-restrictions-on-the-new-abortion-law/


Historic decision: Chile’s National Congress legalizes abortion after 28 years of criminalization

Historic decision: Chile's National Congress legalizes abortion after 28 years of criminalization

Miles Chile dedicates this "day of greater dignity, respect and freedom to all those women who since 1989 were punished, stigmatized, humiliated or killed for having interrupted their pregnancy."

August 3, 2017

Today, 3 August, the Chilean Congress passed the abortion bill into law. Miles Chile has declared today "a day of dignity, respect and freedom honouring all the women who since 1989 were prosecuted, stigmatised, humiliated or killed for having terminated a pregnancy".

In fact, the three grounds for abortion contained in the abortion bill had already been approved by both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies of the Congress.

However, there was not a majority to pass one clause permitting girls and adolescents under the age of 14 years who is pregnant due to rape to seek authorisation from a Family Court for an abortion if a parent or legal guardian refuses their permission.

This held up passage of the whole bill. What was required next was for a Joint Commission of 5 Senators and 5 Deputies to be constituted, who drafted a consensus report on that one clause to be taken for approval to both chambers. The vote on the report in the Commission took place on the evening of 1 August and was approved 6 to 4. The law was passed today, 3 August, by 70 to 45 in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 to 13 in the Senate, after lobbying to ensure there was no further delay.

Now the ten-person Constitutional Court must discuss the three grounds. As has been reported previously, even before the bill was passed by the Congress, the opposition had tabled a request to the Constitutional Court to rule on whether or not the three grounds for abortion are constitutional.

SOURCE: Miles Chile, 3 August 2017 (in Spanish) http://mileschile.cl/?p=4853
Translated by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion


Chile moves towards legalising abortion in limited cases

Chile moves towards legalising abortion in limited cases

19 July 2017

Senators in Chile have voted in favour of a proposal which would end the country's total ban on abortions.
The measure would allow abortion in cases of rape, if the mother's life was at risk or if the foetus would not survive the pregnancy.
Currently, women can be prosecuted if they have an abortion.

The bill, which has the backing of President Michelle Bachelet, will now go back to the Chamber of Deputies for approval.

Continued at source: BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-40653903


Chile: The Senate has agreed two days to debate and vote on the abortion law reform bill

The Senate has agreed two days to debate and vote on the abortion law reform bill
by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
July 18, 2017

The Chilean Senate in committee is moving again on the abortion bill. This bill has gone further in the legislative process than any previous one since democracy was reinstituted in Chile. The current Committee set the dates of 17 July from 3pm to 9pm and 18 July from 3pm until the debate closes with a vote, to discuss the bill yet again and finalise its clauses. First, on 17 July, reports on the discussions in the previous months in the Commissions on Health, Constitution and Finance were tabled by their chairs.

Some Senators are talking about trying to bring back clauses that were rejected in these previous rounds of debate – some want to bring back in more liberal clauses, others more restrictive ones. One point of continuing contention is how many staff in an abortion clinic can claim conscientious objection. One senator stated he was going to vote against rape as a legal ground.

Observers on both sides of the question were in the balcony watching the proceedings, which are ongoing as we write this. When this session finalises the clauses in the bill, it will be reviewed by the entire Senate.

Claudia Dides, Director of Corporación Miles said: “We are very pleased to have reached this stage, in spite of the years of delay on the part of the most conservative sectors. There are some things we don’t like, but this is certainly positive news and we hope that on 18 July they will approve the three grounds of the bill , including the ground of rape”.

It is now two and a half years since the bill was first tabled by President Michelle Bachelet in January 2015.

SOURCE: Miles Chile, 13 July 2017 ; VISUAL ; Look for breaking news on 18 July on @Safe_Abortion and safeabortionwomensright


Source: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/the-senate-has-agreed-two-days-to-debate-and-vote-on-the-abortion-law-reform-bill/


Chilean Constitutional Commission agrees to send the abortion bill to the full Senate

Chilean Constitutional Commission agrees to send the abortion bill to the full Senate!!!
by Safe Abortion, Jan 17, 2017

AND LAST MINUTE SOLIDARITY REQUEST!!!

– Please sign the petition in support of the bill at: contacto@oge.cl

Por favor, firmen la petición en apoyo del proyecto de ley a: contacto@oge.cl

Following a vote today, 17 January, in the Constitutional Commission of the Chilean Senate, the fantastic news is: the abortion bill was approved by the Commission by a vote of three in favour and 2 against. It can now be taken to the floor of the full Senate.

In a last-minute effort in the week before the vote, Chilean human rights NGO Corporación Miles launched four videos. The videos contain raw accounts by women of their experiences of pregnancies with severe and fatal fetal anomalies. They have been disseminated through social networks one at a time, each time to thousands of people – last Wednesday and Thursday 11-12 January, Sunday 15 January and Monday 16 January, with a clear appeal to the Senators to vote for the decriminalisation of abortion on three grounds.

In the first video, Natalia Ahumada, aged 35 from Valparaiso, describes how her daughter was found to have skeletal dysplasia and died in the womb at 33 weeks of pregnancy. She says: “In the public hospital, I was told that my daughter had genetic mutations. I was treated for anxiety and depression. You can’t forget that you are a woman with a non-viable pregnancy who is suffering. I was hospitalized alongside post-partum women with healthy newborns, who I had to share a room with until the delivery, knowing that my daughter was dead.” As if that were not enough, she says: “Because of the lack of information while I was in hospital, I had to wait another week to bury her.”

On the evening of 12 January, the testimony is from Rosita Fuica (23) from Los Angeles, who talks about her experience in a hospital that denounced her to the police for having suffered a miscarriage at home.

On 15 January, a video was circulated with the story of Andrea Quiroga (aged 40) in Santiago, who suffered a pregnancy with a fetus incompatible with life. And on 16 January, Paola Valenzuela (aged 42), talks about the drama of learning her pregnancy was affected by amniotic band syndrome when she was 36 weeks pregnant, and that the child in her womb was being mutilated as it developed because of a fatal problem with all its organs, which meant it would die.

“These are real stories, touching, daunting, about damage to the dignity of women in the extreme. We appreciate the courage of Natalia, Rosita, Andrea and Paola to publicise their testimonies to sensitise the parliamentarians. We hope that the bill will not only be voted on and approved by the Commission, but also in the Senate Chamber,” said the director of Miles, Claudia Dides, in a statement.

Reportaje en español desde Chile:

La Tercera: http://www.latercera.com/noticia/aborto-dificl-panorama-enfrentara-proyecto-la-proxima-semana/

El Mostrador: http://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/multimedia/2017/01/12/video-mensaje-para-senadoras-y-senadores-chilenos-los-crudos-testimonios-de-mujeres-que-abortaron/

Publimetro: https://www.publimetro.cl/cl/nacional/2017/01/12/testimonios-mujeres-video-buscan-impulsar-ley-aborto.html

El Ciudadano: http://www.elciudadano.cl/2017/01/12/350957/miles-lanza-conmovedora-campana-a-favor-del-aborto-en-tres-causales-mujeres-entregan-crudos-testimonios/

SOURCE: Email from Claudia Dides C, Corporación MILES, 12 January 2017

 

Source, International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion:
http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/the-reality-of-abortion-for-fetal-anomaly-four-videos/


Changes in the sexual and reproductive lives of Chilean men and women

Primer Informe sobre Salud Sexual, Salud Reproductiva y Derechos Humanos en Chile
by Safe Abortion | posted Jan 6, 2017

El estudio de la Corporación Miles se refiere a los cambios en la vida sexual y reproductiva de los chilenos y chilenas y a los déficit en los campos de las políticas públicas y las leyes, estableciendo comparaciones con otros países.

(This study by Corporación Miles analyses changes in the sexual and reproductive lives of Chilean men and women and the deficit in public policy and law underlying them, and draws comparisons with other countries.)

Este informe analiza el estado de la situación al 2016, tras 28 años de transformaciones y disputas sociociocultales respecto a estas materias. La edición del documento estuvo a cargo de la directora ejecutiva de Miles, Claudia Dides y Constanza Fernández del equipo de investigación de la entidad, y contó con los aportes tecnicos de Leo Arenas, Jennifer Duran, Eduardo Soto, Marissa Velarde, Gonzalo Infante G. y Gonzalo Leiva R.

(This report analyses the situation of sexual health, reproductive health and human right in Chile up to 2016, after 28 years of transformation and socio-cultural disputes with respect to these issues. It was edited by Claudia Dides, Executive Director of Miles, and Constance Fernández of the Miles research team, and includes theoretical contributions from Leo Arenas, Jennifer Duran, Eduardo Soto, Marissa Velarde, Gonzalo Infante G and Gonzalo Leiva R.)

Chapter 5 is on abortion (pages 113-136). It opens by pointing out that the complete criminalisation of abortion in Chile dates from 1989 under the military dictatorship. Despite not being on the political agenda of the coalition governments since the dictatorship ended, 26 bills on abortion have been tabled in the parliament from 1991 to 2010.

According to Ministry of Health data, in 2012 the number of hospital discharges related to abortion were 30,434. Of these, 26,802 cases were women aged 20-44 years and 3,070 were adolescents aged 15-19 years. Of the total, the reasons for treatment were not specified in 7,952 cases while complications were recorded in 219 cases.

Estimates of numbers of abortions annually for the three legal grounds included in the current

abortion law reform bill, based on data from the Health Ministry for 2012, show that the ground of risk to women’s lives would cover an estimated 9,991 cases per year; the ground of fetal anomaly at less than 22 weeks of pregnancy would cover 304 to 543 cases annually, and the ground of rape would cover an estimated 1,035 cases annually.

Further sections of this chapter cover: 1) women prosecuted for abortion since 1998, when the first case was reported, 2) laws, norms and regulations related to abortion, 3) international agreements supported by Chile since 1966 on human rights, 4) norms, protocols and technical guidance, and a concluding section “By way of reflection”.

In March 2016, the Chamber of Deputies approved the law reform bill. In September 2016, the Health Committee of the Senate approved the principle of legislating. A vote in the Senate is awaited.

Source: International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion