Legal Access to Abortion in Chile:
Women and girls are facing inhumane and life threatening problems every day in Chile. Legal access to necessary health care was minimal prior to 2018, and the means to receive medical protection is growing more demanding and challenging. Before 2017, all abortions for any reason were illegal in every part of Chile. Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet first proposed a piece of legislation in 2015 appealing for legal access to abortion on three bare minimum conditions: if the life of the pregnant woman or girl is at risk; if the pregnancy is the result of rape; and if the fetus has severe conditions not compatible with life outside the womb. After two and a half years of fighting, the bill was finally passed and abortion under strict circumstances was decriminalized in Chile. However, the proposed bill was reformed, posing harsher terms for women and allowed for many loop holes to restrict and tighten access to abortions. Not only does the accepted bill not include risk to the pregnant woman’s health, solely her ‘risk to life”, the bill removed future life of risk, changing it from “current and future life risk to life” to just “current risk to life.” Serious and strict time limits were imposed for the abortions cases regarding grounds of rape, reducing the limits from 18 weeks to 14 weeks for girls under the age of 14. Considering the time necessary for someone especially as young as <14 to report rape and to find medical attention and abortion, these changes are rigid. Not only is any doctor allowed to refuse to perform any abortion, any hospital is allowed to deny any abortions from occurring without even providing a reason to justify their refusals. This creates severe barriers to access to abortion even within the mere circumstances allowed. Many hospitals choose to deny any abortion services as to not displease the awful anti-choice politicians who want to control women and their bodies. Women and girls especially in rural areas with few hospitals around are unable to get an abortion. Not only do these punitive barriers cause safe legal access to abortions to diminish greatly, safe legal abortions are already meager with the severe conditions imposed. Women and girls deserve and need legal easy access to health care and specifically abortions under any circumstances always.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/04/16/backward-step-reproductive-rights-chile
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6927382/#:~:text=In%20January%202015%2C%20President%20Bachelet,years%20of%20debate%20in%20Congress.
Same Sex Marriage in Chile:
Same sex couples in Chile are still being denied the right to marry their spouses. More than three years ago, Congress received a piece of legislation sent by the Chilean government to support and confirm the right to marry between same sex couples. Not only has this bill not passed, Chile continously retreats farther away from this fundamental right. The Chilean Constitutional Court encountered a divisive trial in June of 2019 when a lesbian couple who had already been married in Spain and have a child requested to have their marriage also recognized in Chile. The Chilean Constitutional Court denied the request in a 5-4 ruling. Their ruling belittled and disparaged the LGBTQ+ community, only emphasizing the urgency to establish equal marriage rights in Chile. Justice Cristián Letelier Aguilar spoke demeaningly of queer chileans and people everywhere on behalf of the majority decision, contending that Chilean Law does not actually discriminate against LGBTQ+ people because “a homosexual person can contract marriage in Chile if they do it with a person of the opposite sex.” In Chile right now, a queer person can only expect equal treatment if they stop being themselves.
Human Rights Violation due to Air Pollution:
The Chilean Supreme court found the Chilean administration negligent for providing a safe and healthy environments for their residents over the last several years, violating that constitutionally protected rights to life, health, and a pollution-free environment. Quintero, Chile, frequently referred to as a “sacrifice zone”, has been the subject of intensive industrial development for the past half century, including host refineries, power plants, and, factories. The growing contamination and pollution cultivated the distressing nickname, “the sacrifice zone”. The people and the environment of Quintero, as well as, Puchuncaví suffered even more when over 300 people required medical assistance due to the side effects and harm from the substances of two toxic air pollutions incidents. Marcos Orellana, environment director at Human Rights Watch, summarized the human rights violation perfectly, stating “The right to a pollution-free environment means everyone should be able to breathe without landing in a hospital emergency room. The government has a duty to protect people’s health from being sacrificed for the benefit of industrial facilities.”
https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/11/chile-supreme-court-hears-massive-air-pollution-case
https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/06/05/chiles-clean-air-ruling-offers-hope-world-environment-day