Chile: deputies support bill to decriminalize abortion up to 14 weeks

A commission of deputies from Chile approved on Wednesday a bill that seeks decriminalize abortion up to 14 weeks in a country where the interruption of pregnancy is allowed for rape, danger to the life of the mother and the unfeasibility of the fetus.

The Commission on Women and Gender Equity approved by 7 votes in favor and 6 against the idea of ​​decriminalizing both the woman who interrupts the pregnancy and the doctor who performs the procedure. The project will now be processed in the Chamber of Deputies and, if approved, will continue in the Senate.

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If Congress finally decriminalizes the abortion Until 14 weeks, an interruption beyond three and a half months would remain illegal and if a woman is found guilty, she risks a sentence of up to 5 years in jail.

Dr. Dominique Truan, who spoke on behalf of the Association of Gynecologists Chile, said that “Abortions do not decrease with restrictions, only unsafe abortions increase.”

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Bernardita Silva, from the group Siempre por la Vida, told the commission that life must be defended “From conception to death”.

The government of the center-right president Sebastian Piñera It rejects the project in process and the law that allowed the three causes of abortion was approved in 2017, during the government of its predecessor, Michelle Bachelet (2014-2018).

The Minister for Women, Mónica Zalaquett, has said that 2,556 abortions were performed between 2017 and mid-2021 for one of the three permitted causes and that “no woman in Chile she is serving an effective prison sentence as a result of an abortion ”. There are no statistics on illegal abortions and estimates range from 30,000 to 120,000 cases per year.

The decriminalization project up to 14 weeks, which seeks to modify the Criminal Code, entered Congress in August 2018 and remained pending until January 2021, after a free abortion law was approved in Argentina in December 2020.

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Deshawn