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After Long Battle, Chilean Court Legalizes Abortifacient ‘Morning After Pill’

Social climate of the conservative country is drastically changing

By Meg Jalsevac

CHILE, November 13, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Last week, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals of the predominantly Catholic nation of Chile upheld a lower court’s decision to continue to allow the abortifacient ‘Morning After Pill’ to be dispensed to minors without parental consent.

Politicians also chose this week to introduce a bill that would decriminalize abortion within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy when carried out by a medical professional with the consent of the mother.  Previously, Chile did not allow for abortion at any time in a pregnancy.  The punishment for participation in an abortion was jail time for both doctor and mother. 

The three men who filed the complaint against the ‘Morning After Pill’ have said that they will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Chile.  They filed their complaint on the basis that the legalization of the drug interfered with their right to educate their children.

Health Minister María Soledad Barría was pleased with the recent verdict.  She said, “The court has agreed with the ministry, saying we have the right to make regulations regarding reproductive health, including the distribution of the morning-after pill.”

Despite her efforts to procure permission for the ‘Morning After Pill’, Barria has said that abortion “is not on this administration’s agenda.”

Fueled by pressure from the UN and other international organizations, the Ministry of Health has been battling for permission to distribute the abortifacient drug and universally liberalize Chile’s conservative laws for years.  

In 1999 the United Nations Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women condemned the Chilean government for not legalizing abortion and demanded that they “must” change their laws.  A separate UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ruled in November of 2005 that Chile should at least allow for abortion in cases of rape and incest.

After years of legal fighting, initial legal permission to distribute the abortifacient drug was granted by the Chilean Supreme Court in December, 2005.  Subsequent appeals and challenges in various courts had temporarily thwarted the dispersal until now. 

The pro-abortion changes in Chilean law have also coincided with the beginning of the Ministry of Health’s eighth annual AIDS awareness campaign, nationally promoted with the slogan “I take care of my life; condoms always.''

The campaign is an attempt to alert the young people of Chile to the risk of HIV.  The condom is suggested as the solution and prevention method of choice.  Barria says, ''We thought that we could change the sexual practices of Chile's youth. Half of them are sexually active and do not use condoms.''

The liberal agendas of President Michelle Bachelet of the Socialist Party, backed by the Ministry of Health, is causing conflict in the previously conservative nation’s government.  The Christian Democratic Party is vocally in opposition of the ‘condom campaign’.  Carlos Olivares and Eduardo Díaz of the Democratic Party said the campaign was ''incomplete, uninformed and ideologically flawed''.  They warned that encouraging condom use would actually cause more promiscuity. 

Gay rights proponents have also recently begun clamoring for recognition in Chile. 

Under Bachelet’s liberal reign, the social climate of the conservative country is drastically changing.  As little as 10 years ago, discussion of any of the topics of contraception, condoms or homosexuality would have been regarded as taboo. 

Religious groups reacted immediately with their disapproval of the ‘Morning After Pill’ approval and the abortion proposal.  Manuel Camilo Vial, the bishop of the southern city of Temuco,  has condemned the recent condom campaign. 

See Related LifeSite Coverage:

Chilean Government Calls for Study on Abortifacient “Plan B” Pill
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/oct/06102402.html

Chilean Court Reverses Its Decision and Allows Abortifacient ‘Morning After Pill’
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/sep/06092605.html

Chile Court Suspends Gov’t Plan to Distribute Free Morning-After Pill
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/sep/06091505.html

Chile’s Mayors Refuse Morning After Pill Push
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/sep/06090606.html

Chilean Supreme Court Orders Sale of Abortifacient Morning-After Pill
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/dec/05120202.html

United Nations Now Pushes Chile and Malta to Legalize Abortion
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/nov/04113003.html

Chilean Health Ministry Defies Supreme Court By Allowing Abortifacient Pills
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/sep/01090603.html

UN Orders Chile to Provide Abortion and Divorce
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1999/jun/99062301.html

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