Secular groups help lead Chile's pro-life fight

Chile is one of a few remaining countries that prohibit abortion without exception. Illegal abortions carry a penalty of up to five years in prison. But pro-abortion advocates are chipping away at opposition to legalization and could soon celebrate a victory.

It’s been a year since Chilean President Michelle Bachelet presented a bill to decriminalize abortion in three cases: rape, a threat to the mother’s life, or fatal defects in the baby. Although lawmakers have urged a vote on the bill since October, the committee considering the legislation has yet to act. Earlier in January, politicians agreed to postpone the vote until March and consider modifications to the legislation.

The country has debated loosening those restrictions for at least the last 20 years. In October, Cristóbal Ruiz-Tagle, research director for Chilean NGO IdeaPaís, told me he expected at least another year and a half of political debate before any changes are made.

Ruiz-Tagle said no one was in a hurry to pass the bill because of the deeply held values and high emotions that surround it.

“The civil union agreement took about four years to be discussed, and the same with divorce,” Ruiz-Tagle said, pointing to two other highly controversial issues in the deeply conservative country. But Bachelet’s center-left coalition has relentlessly championed liberal social reforms, including legalizing same-sex civil unions last April, and is set on legalizing abortion as soon as possible.

A recent poll by Chilean progressive think tank Foundation Chile 21 and market research consulting firm Criteria Research found 85 percent of Chileans approve of allowing abortion in cases of rape. In September, a survey by Cadem showed 66 percent of Chileans approve of the proposed legislation. But some Chilean analysts warn against trusting those numbers, and a December survey by Cerc-Mori shows why: Among recent legal reforms, Chilean voters voiced the most opposition to the abortion reform bill.

Bachelet’s bill derives support from advocates for “women’s inviolable right to respect and protection.” But so do secular organizations in Chile’s pro-life camp. While religious groups have a strong voice in Chile’s pro-life movement, they are joined in the fight for unborn babies by groups with no religious affiliation, a rarity in the United States.

Religious groups appeal to God’s law to advocate for continued abortion restrictions. But secular groups appeal to the strong push for women’s rights. Through a variety of projects, they focus on support for women in unplanned pregnancies, who often are forced by abusive partners into considering abortions they don’t want.

“There is no evidence … that tells you abortion brings any benefit to the woman,” Ruiz-Tagle argues.

IdeaPaís’ Por Ella (For Her) campaign is generating a network of universities, young people, and protesters to oppose abortion. Religious arguments sometimes muddy the waters in Chilean political debates since they often are ridiculed, so IdeaPaís aims to present “ultra-scientific” pro-life arguments anyone can accept, regardless of beliefs, Ruiz-Tagle said.

His team investigates and publicizes the underlying factors that contribute to unexpected pregnancies and urges the government to focus on resolving these issues through its accompaniment program, so women can consider their options well.

“Let’s make it so they have the conditions of freedom, and then let’s discuss if they have the right [to abort] or not,” he said.

The conservative centrist Christian Democratic Party, which opposes the abortion reform bill, also seeks to prevent potential abortions by pushing the government to improve its accompaniment program and make it obligatory. The program pairs vulnerable women with mentors who can help them as they make decisions about their unplanned pregnancies. In January, the National Women’s Service pledged to improve the support program.

Although abortion is illegal, desperate women do find ways around the law. A common method of illegal abortion in Chile involves taking black market anti-ulcer pills called misotrol, also known by the brand name Cytotec.

Elizabeth Bunster, coordinator for pro-life network Chile es Vida (Chile is Life), has spent 30 years helping struggling expectant mothers in women’s shelters and other programs. She and her colleagues believe abortion “isn’t a worthy option for the woman because at the end she is the one that continues with that pain for years.” Bunster said the pain is made worse because ending the life of a baby early prevents women from experiencing “healthy grief.” Chile es Vida travels within Chile and to 12 other Latin American countries to share about post-abortion trauma.

From her experience as director of Proyecto Esperanza (Project Hope), most women opt for help to continue their pregnancies, Bunster said. Those who have aborted say they would have chosen life if someone had offered them help.

Bunster fears legalized abortion normalizes death as a solution to a societal problem and warns it would affect the morals of future generations. She also wants the government to strengthen the option of accompaniment programs to address the circumstances that lead to crisis pregnancies.

“Not seeing it that way … is seeing the woman in a very utilitarian way,” she said. “If you’re pregnant, we’ll get rid of it.”

Rosario Vidal co-founded the activist group Reivindica (Reclaim) in 2012 as a response to social exclusion of women, which she experienced first-hand after having a baby at 17. She thinks Chilean machismo (male chauvinism) pressures women to give up motherhood for social inclusion. Reivindica argues abortion comes from structural and direct violence against women and publicizes research to prove it. Theories that promote abortion are distorted and “disconnected from reality,” according to Vidal.

“No one even thinks about abortion to empower themselves,” she said.

A 2014 study by the Melisa Institute found at least half of 3,134 unexpected pregnancies in Chile resulted from coercion, sexual abuse, fear, or abandonment. The number rose to almost 70 percent among those considering abortions.

Vidal said a victory against the pro-abortion bill would be pointless if Chile’s culture of discrimination and violence doesn’t change. Por Ella also conducted research that suggests economic and psychological problems are behind vulnerable pregnancies that end in abortions.

“It’s brought up in terms of rights … of attacking options, when the reality tells us the opposite,” Vidal said. “The woman who comes to an abortion is someone who’s been abandoned, beaten, attacked. … This really angers us because when you naturalize abortion you also naturalize all the pressure for her to abort.”

Vidal blames foreign activists for pressuring the Chilean government to loosen abortion restrictions: “They have the UN pressuring for Chile to legalize abortion. … According to international legislation, each country self-determines these matters and can’t receive pressures.”

Reivindica has few resources because most private and government donations go to women’s shelters or other support programs, not to pro-life activism. Even then, Vidal said Chile doesn’t have a culture of volunteering or donating, so there’s little money to go around. But Vidal told me the pro-abortion camp receives foreign funding and dedicates it to activism, making it more visible.

The International Planned Parenthood Federation finances organizations like Chile’s Legal Movement to Interrupt Pregnancy and the Chilean Association for Family Protection (APROFA) to push the abortion legalization campaign, according to Vidal. Planned Parenthood’s public records indicate it gave $119,537 to APROFA Chile in 2014.

At the end of our interview, I asked Vidal why she didn’t have an abortion when she found herself unexpectedly pregnant at 17. Her eyes widened, she smiled and let out a long, “Oh.” After a pause, she said it was hard for her to speak about because she still hasn’t discussed it with her daughter.

“At one point I felt that wasn’t my choice,” she said. “That I’d been totally pressured into things. This finally … made me really mad. And in fact I’m still mad.”