By Peter J. Smith
SANTIAGO, Chile, December 18, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet has called her government’s program to distribute abortion-causing emergency contraception as a matter of social justice, despite the outcry from Chile’s political and Church leaders who say the program violates parental rights and is the first step to overturning Chile’s constitutional protections of unborn life.
The New York Times reports that Bachelet, “a feminist physician who used to practice pediatric medicine at public clinics in poor neighborhoods”, has argued for the distribution of free abortifacient contraceptives because “not everyone is equal and not everyone has the same possibilities.” She claims her duty is “to guarantee that all Chileans have real options in this area, as in others.”
The coalition government under Bachelet has legalized the “morning-after pill”, also known as Plan B, and has ordered state hospitals to provide these high-dosage contraceptives free on demand to girls and women over 14 years old. The government has pushed ahead, despite objections from the Catholic nation’s conservative and religious leaders who point out the high level hormones in emergency contraceptives cause an abortion by making the womb inhospitable to a newly conceived human embryo, and thus would violate Chile’s constitutional ban on abortion.
Still, Bachelet, with her allies in the Health Ministry, have argued the pill does not violate the Constitution and has defended her program as a matter of social justice, a statement that rings hollow since Pope Benedict XVI in March called the suppression of nascent life “today’s gravest injustice.” (https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06032005.html)
Chile’s Catholic bishops have become alarmed at the quickening pace of an anti-life and anti-family agenda in the nation, since after the legalization of divorce two years ago, both abortion, euthanasia, and homosexual “rights” have surfaced for debate.
In a statement, Chile’s national conference of Catholic bishops denounced the government’s actions as “reminiscent of public policies established in totalitarian regimes, by which the state aimed to regulate the intimate lives of its citizens.”
The Rev. Marcos Burzawa, director of the family vicariate for the archbishop of Santiago, told the Times that the government had failed to respect the rights of parents in their policy and that “parents feel their views have not been taken into account and that these norms deprive them of their role as the primary educators and tutors of their children.”
Pablo Zalaquett, mayor of Santiago’s La Florida borough, called the government’s push for emergency contraception “a Trojan horse designed to clear the way for the legalization of abortion.” Mayor Zalaquett is challenging the government’s distribution of the abortifacient “morning-after” pill before Chile’s Supreme Court, and a number of mayors have refused under any circumstances to participate in the government’s program, which has garnered the ire of Bachelet and the Health Ministry.
“We have a system of laws in this country that applies to everybody,” Health Minister Dr. Maria Soledad Barria told the Times. “Public officials in particular have an obligation to implement public policy, whether they like it personally or not.”
Dr. Barria has been careful to say that legalizing abortion is not on the government’s agenda. “We are not going to do absolutely anything in this area, which is not part of our governing program,” she told the Times. When pressed why, in view of President Bachelet’s dispositions, Dr. Barria said, “We are in a coalition.”
See Related LifeSite Coverage:
After Long Battle, Chilean Court Legalizes Abortifacient ‘Morning After Pill’
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/nov/06111307.html
Chilean Government Calls for Study on Abortifacient “Plan B” Pill
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/oct/06102402.html
Chilean Court Reverses Its Decision and Allows Abortifacient ‘Morning After Pill’
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/sep/06092605.html
United Nations Now Pushes Chile and Malta to Legalize Abortion
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/nov/04113003.html
UN Orders Chile to Provide Abortion and Divorce
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1999/jun/99062301.html