National Women’s Service Minister: “Democratic progress has been made in a discussion that Chile is willing to have”

Following the Chamber of Deputies Health Commission’s approval by eight votes to five of the idea of passing a bill that would allow the voluntary termination of pregnancy in three cases, National Women’s Service (SERNAM) Minister Claudia Pascual Grau stated that progress had been made democratically towards holding this discussion in Chile.

“Today, democratic progress has been made in a discussion that Chile is willing to have: the idea of passing a bill that would decriminalize the voluntary termination of pregnancy in three specific cases, namely: risk to the life of the expectant mother, extra-uterine fetal unviability, and the difficult situation of becoming pregnant as a result of sexual violence, such as rape,” the Minister stated.

She also highlighted the discussion process, “including six months of work in the Health Commission, which has heard from over 68 experts from academia, the medical field, churches women’s organizations, and civil society.”

“This bill has generated broad popular support in regard to these three cases, which has been manifested in various public opinion polls and in the social media over the past few days. This shows that there is a willingness to discuss it,” she explained.

The minister added that, “we have democratically decided in this Parliament, in coordination with the Health Commission members that, regardless of the way that they voted, we will move forward with this bill and that we can legislate on voluntary interruption of pregnancy in three cases in Chile.”
“As an administration, we believe that this bill cannot impose positions. On the contrary, it has to open up positions and opportunities that do not currently exist in our country, our legislation, or our State, so that women can make a decision based on their own convictions and way of thinking,” the minister noted.

Minister Pascual said, “not only must this decision be allowed, but access to the procedure must be guaranteed. Women must have access to support and to the healthcare involved with either continuing with their pregnancies or deciding to interrupt them by these means.”

In regard to cases of rape, the category that some groups have argued could be misused, the Minister said, “We have said during this discussion that one must put oneself in the place of a woman, girl or teenager who has been sexually abused and violated and has become pregnant as a result of that violation. We think that it is highly unlikely that anyone could lie about this or that someone could believe that this is an easy decision to make. The first thing that we want to do as an administration is support women in that difficult situation and provide options so that each one of them can make a decision on her own or with her family or another supporter.”

Minister Pascual also referred to the idea that there could be changes to the bill, noting that “the idea of legislating has been approved and the period for instructions has been opened, as the President of the commission has said, until August 28. In that context, we will assess and evaluate not only what we have heard during this process but also the instructions that the Executive Branch may provide, though the Executive is interested in maintaining the core ideas of the bill.”