PHA-Exchange> Therapeutic Abortion - A Distant but Not Impossible Prospect/CHILE

[Claudio]

From: "Marcy Bloom"

 http://www.ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=34850

CHILE:
Therapeutic Abortion - A Distant but Not Impossible Prospect

Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO, Sep 22 (IPS) - Activists fighting for the decriminalisation of
therapeutic abortion in Chile have long faced a depressing scenario: zero
political will, stiff opposition from the Catholic Church and limited public
support. Today, though, they are encouraged by positive signals on
contraception from the government of Michelle Bachelet.

On Sep. 28, which has been designated the Day for the Decriminalisation and
Legalisation of Abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean, about a hundred
women belonging to several different women's organisations will march
through the streets of Valparaíso, 120 kilometres west of Santiago.

The women will visit Congress, located in that port city, to deliver a
petition with a long list of signatures, asking parliament to legalise
abortion. They will then go to the Cathedral to commemorate women who have
died from complications suffered while undergoing backstreet abortions.

That same day a vigil will be held in Santiago's central Constitution
square.
The issue of abortion made another appearance in the public domain at the
36th session of the expert committee of the Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), held in mid-August at the
United Nations headquarters in New York.

The Bachelet administration authorised the country's public health services
to prescribe and distribute traditional birth control as well as emergency
contraceptives ("the morning-after pill") free of charge to women over 14,
with no need for parental consent.

The measure was halted by the Santiago Court of Appeals on Sep. 13 in
response to legal challenges by a mayor and by two private individuals, who
argued that the government's action undermined the right of parents to
choose how to raise their children.

But on Friday, the Court of Appeals revoked its previous decision, and is
allowing distribution of the morning-after pill to proceed until it has
studied the legal demands "in depth." Meanwhile, on Thursday the Ministry of
Education announced the start of a sex education programme in the country's
schools.