Chile’s government said Wednesday it had introduced a bill in Congress to legalize abortions up to 14 weeks of pregnancy, a key pledge of left-wing President Gabriel Boric during his 2022 election campaign.

In Chile, abortions are only permitted for three reasons: a threat to the life of the mother, serious malformation of the foetus, or rape.

“Thirty-six years after therapeutic abortions (terminations due to medical necessity) were banned in our country… we are opening the debate in Congress,” Minister for Women Antonia Orellana told reporters.

She was referring to dictator Augusto Pinochet’s 1989 repeal of a law allowing abortions on health grounds, which ushered in a total ban on terminations for over 25 years.

The bill unveiled by the government on Wednesday comes a year after Boric announced plans to decriminalize all abortions.

His minority Frente Amplio (Broad Front) party faces an uphill battle to get the bill through parliament, with the conservative opposition vehemently opposed to expanding abortion rights.

Orellana admitted it would be “naive” to think that abortions would be legal before Boric’s presidency ends in March 2026.

Decriminalizing abortion under all circumstances is a long-standing demand of feminist groups in Chile.

A poll by the Centre for Public Studies showed, however, that only 34 percent of Chileans back the right to abortions regardless of circumstances, whereas 50 percent believe terminations should only be allowed in special cases.

Boric, who became Chile’s youngest-ever leader in 2021 aged 35, failed in his bid to put expanded abortion rights in a new proposed constitution in 2022.

Voters however rejected the draft charter.

AFP

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