By Terry Vanderheyden

SANTIAGO, December 2, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Chile’s Supreme Court has reversed course and ruled that the abortifacient morning-after pill can now be sold, according to an EFE News service report. Previous developments on the issue indicate that the pro-life country has most likely endured intense pressure from international population control agencies forcing this dramatic about face.

In 2001, after the government’s minister of health approved use of the morning-after pill, the Chilean Supreme Court, recognizing the abortifacient component of the pill, banned its use in Chile, where abortion was illegal. The 3-2 vote overturned a lower court ruling in favour of the pill.

Only moments later, the Ministry of Health approved another similar pill arguing that the court only banned a certain brand-name of abortifacient morning-after pill. The court decided to ban use of the abortifacient morning-after pill, Postinal. Just moments after the ruling, the Health Ministry gave final approval to German drug maker Grunenthal’s brand of abortifacient morning after pill. The morning-after pill has been distributed free to Chilean women who are victims of rape.

After a refusal by a majority of the country’s Mayors to distribute the pill there last year, Health Minister Pedro Garcia warned them: distribute the abortifacient morning-after pill in your towns or face sanctions.

Up until now, Chile was one of only five countries world-wide that banned all abortions. The Chilean constitution contains a prohibition against abortion. The United Nations has repeatedly badgered Chile, along with other countries that still prohibit abortion, to change their law. A UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ruled last November that the countries should allow abortion in cases of rape and incest.

In 1999, a UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women complained bitterly that Chile did not offer legal abortion or divorce and demanded that its laws “must” be changed.

Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo warned about the abortifacient nature of the morning after pill in 2001. “It is very grave that an attempt is being made to confuse public opinion with ambiguous terms,” he said, as reported by Zenit News. “The process of human life does not begin with the embryo’s adherence to the maternal womb, but before, at the very moment of conception. Hence, to talk about ‘impeding implantation in the uterus’ is nothing but a euphemism in an attempt to disguise abortion.”

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
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
Chilean Health Ministry Defies Supreme Court By Allowing Abortifacient Pills
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/sep/01090603.html
Vatican Cardinal Warns of Deception over ‘Emergency Contraceptives’
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/apr/01040502.html
Chilean Minister of Health Threatens Mayors: Distribute Morning-After Pill or Face Sanctions
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/may/04050606.html
Doctor Spells Out Abortive Nature Of “Emergency Contraception”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1999/june/99062302.html