Abortion Rules in Chile Survive Threat of Constitutional Rewrite

Eduardo Thomson, Bloomberg News
Sep 15, 2023

An clause in the draft of Chile’s new constitution that would have annulled current abortion rules in the South American country failed to reach enough support in a vote Friday.

The article stating “all human beings are persons” won 29 votes in favor, 17 against and 4 abstentions at the Constitutional Council. It needed 30 votes to pass. Several council members had warned the clause would have made current abortion rules unconstitutional.

Chile allows abortions only in three cases: rape, risks to the mother’s life, or if the baby has a medical condition that means it isn’t expected to survive. The current law was approved in 2017 during the second government of Michelle Bachelet.

The abstentions Friday were among council members from the center-right Chile Vamos coalition and show a break from the majority right-wing Republicanos party, Claudio Fuentes, a political scientist at Universidad Diego Portales, said on social media.

Source: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/abortion-rules-in-chile-survive-threat-of-constitutional-rewrite-1.1972103

15.09.2023

News

Chile abortion law

Claudio Fuentes

constitutional amendment to ban abortion

‘Gigantic step backwards’: far-right gains in Chile threaten abortion rights

Concerns mount as ultraconservative Republican party’s ‘right to life’ proposal could be enshrined in constitution

John Bartlett
Mon 21 Aug 2023

The hard-won right to an abortion in Chile is at risk of being overturned, activists have warned, as the country’s far right moves to enshrine protection for “the life of the unborn child and maternity” in a new constitution.

Concerns have grown over the ultraconservative Republican party’s plans to pare back reproductive rights in Chile as it now holds significant sway in the fate of the country’s constitutional saga.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/aug/21/chile-far-right-new-consitution-abortion

US abortion ban: Experts urge country to join women’s rights convention

By World Nation News Desk
Updated 26/10/2022

The Committee of Experts on Women’s Rights highlighted this Friday that The United States is one of only seven countries in the world that is not a party to the convention. It protects the fundamental guarantees of women, including sexual and reproductive health.

“Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Urge the United States to Join To the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in order to respect, protect, fulfill and promote the human rights of women and girls,” the expert group said in a statement.

Continued: https://worldnationnews.com/us-abortion-ban-experts-urge-country-to-join-womens-rights-convention/

26.10.2022

CEDAW

CEDAW Committee

Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Committee of Experts on Women's Rights

Michelle Bachelet

Urgent action required to address ‘plague’ of sexual, gender-based violence – Report

In 2022, 274 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection.

August 27, 2022

A toxic combination of global conflict, COVID-19 and climate change is exacerbating sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) against vulnerable women, children and adolescents worldwide, including in West Africa.

In a jointly authored commentary published today, three leading advocates for women’s health and rights – the Rt Hon. Helen Clark, PMNCH Board Chair and former Prime Minister of New Zealand; Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and former President of Chile; and H.E. José Manuel Albares, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Spain – call for urgent multi-lateral action to tackle what they have described as a ‘plague’ of rape, or other violent physical or mental abuse, targeting vulnerable women, children and adolescents, especially those living in humanitarian settings.

Continued: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/551027-urgent-action-required-to-address-plague-of-sexual-gender-based-violence-report.html

27.08.2022

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gender-based violence

US abortion debate: Rights experts urge lawmakers to adhere to women’s convention

1 July 2022
United Nations

A week since the US Supreme Court overturned a landmark, 50-year-old judgement guaranteeing access to abortion, top UN-appointed independent experts urged United States lawmakers on Friday to adhere to international law that protects women’s right to sexual and reproductive health.

The UN women’s rights committee said that the US is one of only seven countries throughout the world that is not party to the international convention that protects women’s human rights, including their right to sexual and reproductive health.

Continued: https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/07/1121862

01.07.2022

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Overturning of Roe v Wade abortion law a ‘huge blow to women’s human rights’ warns Bachelet

24 June 2022
United Nations

The widely anticipated Supreme Court decision, by six votes to three, was made in the specific case of Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health, and Michelle Bachelet said in a statement that it represents a “major setback” for sexual and reproductive health across the US.

The historic decision returns all questions of legality and access to abortion, to the individual states.

Reacting earlier to the US ruling, without making specific reference to it, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) noted that a staggering 45 per cent of all abortions around the world, are unsafe, making the procedure a leading cause of maternal death.

Continued: https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/06/1121312

Chile’s feminists push to decriminalize abortion

February 19, 2021
By Carole Concha Bell

Abortion campaigners in Chile have been heartened by the recent legalization of abortion in neighboring Argentina and are currently presenting a bill for the decriminalization of abortion. But with a pro-life government and Senate inherited from the Pinochet regime (1973-90) any amendments to the existing law will be hard won.

Chile has one of the world’s most draconian abortion laws in the world. Dictator General Augusto Pinochet’s last act before leaving office in 1989 was to completely outlaw abortion and make it a punishable crime. It was not until 2017 that President Michelle Bachelet’s administration was able to amend the law to allow abortion in extreme cases. But women’s reproductive rights have come under attack again by far-right President Sebastian Pinera’s cabinet. In 2019 Pinera introduced an amendment allowing entire (private) hospitals and medical professionals to object to the procedure on grounds of “conscience.”

Continued: https://towardfreedom.org/americas-2/chiles-feminists-push-to-decriminalize-abortion/

Brazil expands requirements for abortion in rape cases

AFP, Rio de Janeiro
AUG 29 2020

Brazil expanded its requirements Friday for rape victims seeking an abortion, including a rule that medical staff must tell the woman she can see the embryo or fetus via ultrasound.

The new regulations published by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro's health ministry also stipulate that the rape "must be reported to police" regardless of the woman's wishes, that she must give doctors "a detailed account" of what happened, and that she must be "expressly warned" she can be prosecuted for fraud and aborting illegally if she is unable to prove her claim.

Continued: https://www.deccanherald.com/international/brazil-expands-requirements-for-abortion-in-rape-cases-879458.html

Abortion ‘doulas’ in Chile risk prison, saying women need their help

Abortion 'doulas' in Chile risk prison, saying women need their help
“We are doing this because the law is insufficient."

May 28, 2020
By Liam Miller

SANTIAGO, Chile — The woman anxiously removes the SIM card from the cheap cellphone and cuts the chip into pieces before sweeping the fragments into the trash. When her nerves pass, she allows herself a small sigh of relief.

Despite using a "burner" phone like those associated with drug deals in TV crime series, this woman is using it for a different purpose. A college-educated professional, she's one of several women in a group of abortion "doulas," part of a clandestine network willing to break the law and face prison to help women obtain abortions, as long as it's medically safe to do so.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/abortion-doulas-chile-risk-prison-saying-women-need-their-help-n1154506

Chilean court: Private health facilities can’t be forced to do abortions

Chilean court: Private health facilities can’t be forced to do abortions

December 17, 2018 CNA Daily News News Briefs 0 Print

Santiago, Chile, Dec 17, 2018 / 10:53 am (ACI Prensa).- A Chilean court has ruled that private healthcare facilities may conscientiously object to abortions, declaring unconstitutional a law that had gone into effect in October.

By a vote of 8-2, the nation’s Constitutional Court struck down a portion of the Regulation on Conscientious Objection of the Law on Abortion. The court accepted a Dec. 6 appeal filed by senators of the Chile Vamos coalition which sought to annul part of the Department of Health regulation.

Continued: https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2018/12/17/chilean-court-private-health-facilities-cant-be-forced-to-do-abortions/

17.12.2018