Topic: Reproductive Health
Country: Chile
Delegate Name: Natasha
School: Vicksburg High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Chile position papers GLIMUN 2017 committees
Chile recognizes the right of a woman to terminate a pregnancy in three major cases with the recent August law, formed on August 21st of this current year. If the fetus is unviable, if the woman’s life is endangered, and in the case of a male maliciously raping the victimized female which then results in unwanted pregnancy. For years, we had failed to recognize these women with such viable reasons to terminate the fetus, but now Chile recoggnizes these women. Even though the August law aids the major causes for a woman to abort the fetus, there is still room for more improvement. Chile also believes that a woman should not be forced to keep a fetus if the woman cannot afford to raise the child, if she does not have what is necessary to support a child (housing, partner, and/or mental health), and any other sexual violence other than rape.
Multiple Chilean women who were criminalized for seeking to terminate a pregnancy from doctors or other medical professionals were reported by those same professionals that they had asked for help. Therefore, reminding us that in order to have complete equality for women- including their reproductive rights, that the professionals must support the individuals seeking help and not turn them away. With the August Law being our first stepping stone of hopefully many more to come, Chile would gladly work with other countries who also value womens’ reproductive rights and want to further womens’ rights to their own bodies.
Works Cited Mooney, Jadwiga E. Pieper. “The Long Road to Reproductive Rights in Chile.” NACLA, Jadwiga E. Pieper Mooney, 19 Sept. 2017, nacla.org/news/2017/09/27/long-road-reproductive-rights-chile.
