The Constitutional Convention of Chile, responsible for drafting a new Constitution to replace the current one inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), approved on Tuesday a provision authorizing the voluntary termination of pregnancy.
With 108 votes for, 39 against and 6 abstentions, the Constituent Assembly approved the second clause of the article on sexual and reproductive rights, which stipulates that the State must ensure “the conditions for a voluntary and protected pregnancy, voluntary termination of pregnancy, childbirth and maternity”.
“Thus, it guarantees its exercise without violence or interference from third parties, whether individuals or institutions,” adds the text.
“The Convention is moving forward,” tweeted Antonia Orellana, Minister for Women and Gender Equality in the recently installed left-wing government, welcoming this decision taken by “a large and diverse majority for sexual and reproductive rights”.
In Chile, abortion is authorized only in the event of danger to the life of the mother or the child or of rape.
The decriminalization of abortion is being discussed in Congress.
The right to abortion must be part of the draft new Constitution which must be presented by the Constitutional Convention before July 4th.
This new fundamental law will be submitted by referendum to the Chileans during 2022. If it is rejected, the Pinochet Constitution will be maintained.
“I am 52 years old. 47 years (that I live) the absence of my mother, who lost her life during an illegal abortion, declared Loreto Vidal, member of the Convention during a speech around abortion.
“For her and for many others, there were no guarantees, no security and no protection,” she added.
The drafting of the new Constitution emerged as an institutional solution to the social protests that erupted in the country in October 2019.
Many demonstrators denounced the text, voted in 1980, as the pivot of the ultra-liberal economic system put in place under Augusto Pinochet and a brake on any social reform.
On March 11, Gabriel Boric, ex-student leader and representative of a new left-wing promise, officially became Chile’s youngest president at the age of 36.
“As Salvador Allende predicted almost 50 years ago, here we are again, dear compatriots, opening up great avenues where free men and women will pass to build a better society. Long live Chile!”, had launched the head of state at the end of his address to the nation, clearly referring to the last speech of Salvador Allende, the former socialist president, delivered just before his suicide in 1973, since La Moneda Palace.