Chile moves to ease strict abortion laws

Chile’s senate early Wednesday took a major step towards lifting the socially conservative country’s total ban on abortions by agreeing to decriminalize the procedure in certain cases.

The measure, supported by President Michelle Bachelet, allows abortion in cases of rape, if the mother’s life is at risk, or if the fetus presents a deadly birth defect.

After hours of tense debate and more than two years in the making, the senators approved the proposal by voting separately on each measure.

Chilean conservatives have rallied against the abortion bill ever since Bachelet introduced it in January 2015.

Nevertheless, polls show that 70 percent of Chileans support legalized abortion under those three conditions.

Abortion of any type has been strictly outlawed since 1989, during the final days of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship. Under current law abortion is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Prior to that, for more than 50 years, Chile permitted abortion if the mother’s life was in danger or if the fetus was not viable.

The abortion measure still needs approval by the Chamber of Deputies to be signed into law by Bachelet, a pediatrician who returned to office in March 2014 after serving as Chile’s first woman president from 2006 to 2010.

The approval “is a great contribution to the history of Chile,” said Claudia Dides, spokesperson for Miles, a prosexual and reproductive rights group.

Supporters gathered outside Congress clapped and cheered when news broke that the measure was approved.