Shocking ads ignite debate about abortion ban in Chile

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

May 28, 12:42 AM EDT

Shocking ads ignite debate about abortion ban in Chile

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO
Associated Press

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- The video shows a woman climbing a stairwell, her belly visibly pregnant, as she offers suggestions: Make sure there are no security cameras. Be careful not to look down or you might regret it.

She tumbles backward as the screen goes black. "When you reach the bottom everything will be OK," she says.

The video is one of a series of mock abortion tutorials, part of a public campaign urging Chile to allow women to end pregnancies in cases of rape or medical complications. It would be a radical change for Chile, one of only six countries that prohibit all abortion, according to the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights.

The videos are deliberately dark and disturbing, appearing to show pregnant women throwing themselves into traffic or thrusting their stomachs onto fire hydrants. Released last month, the videos organized by Miles, a non-governmental group, aim to rally support for President Michelle Bachelet's attempt to ease the abortion ban.


Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_CHILE_ABORTION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-05-28-00-03-53

[rpannier]

1. K&R Thanks for posting

I'll be curious as to what happens because the politics around abortion in Chile and Nicaragua are not similar to the US or most of the west

[MADem]

2. South America is well behind the curve on this issue.

http://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/wrd/wrd0106/

Latin America is home to some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world. While only three countries—Chile, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic—provide no exceptions or extenuating circumstances for the criminal sanctions on abortion, in most countries and jurisdictions, exceptions are provided only when necessary to save the pregnant woman’s life and in certain other narrowly defined circumstances. Even where abortion is not punished by law, women often have severely limited access because of lack of proper regulation and political will.

Advancing access to safe and legal abortion can save women’s lives and facilitate women’s equality. Women’s decisions about abortion are not just about their bodies in the abstract, but rather about their human rights relating to personhood, dignity, and privacy more broadly. Continuing barriers to such decisions in Latin America interfere with women’s enjoyment of their rights, and fuel clandestine and unsafe practices, a major cause of maternal mortality in much of the region.

Latin American women’s organizations have fought for the right to safe and legal abortion for decades. Increasingly, international human rights law supports their claims. In fact, international human rights legal instruments and interpretations of those instruments by authoritative U.N. expert bodies compel the conclusion that access to safe and legal abortion services is integral to the fulfillment of women’s human rights generally, including their reproductive rights and rights relating to their full and equal personhood.

More at link....

[rpannier]

3. Thanks for the link

What you posted is interesting
When I get time I will read the rest

Thanks again

[ck4829]

4. A leftover from Pinochet's 'sanctity of life'. Pinochet decreed a total abortion ban, meanwhile...

People are tortured and killed in detention centers
Kids were raped and molested in Colonia Dignidad, a cult compound controlled by one of his allies
State sponsored terrorism was being perpetrated by DINA
Eugenio Berrios was developing a biological and chemical weapons program for Pinochet

Totally duggary.

[jtuck004]

5. I think a couple of good coathanger commercials might do us a world of good.

Maybe a kid laying there bleeding, screaming for her mom and dad as she dies...

And then label it the Pro Life Solution.

Too much tragedy hidden by people trying to get along for "progress".

[eissa]

6. As horrific as that description sounds, I agree

Abortion bans don't stop abortion, they only stop safe ones.

[jtuck004]

7. I would hope it would wake people up at night screaming. On the other hand, American Idle [sic] is

very stiff competition.