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Of the 144 girls and adolescents under the age of 18 who went to a health center to have an abortion, 119 did so on the grounds of rape. Below we review these and other figures on abortion in three causes, the complaints and convictions for clandestine abortion and the unknown ghost figures in Chile regarding the latter.
In September 2017, law 21,030 came into force, which allows pregnant women to have an abortion if it is compatible with any of the following causes: risk of the mother’s life, fetal infeasibility or rape.
Today, after what happened in Argentina in early January, the possibility of moving towards a total decriminalization of abortion up to 14 weeks of gestation is being discussed. In the midst of this debate, we collect the figures of what abortion has been in Chile so far.
The 3 causes
According to figures compiled by BioBioChile belonging to the Department of Health Statistics and Information (DEIS), between February 2018 and September 2020, there were 2009 cases of women who entered health centers evaluating the possibility of aborting under any of the three causes . Of these, 1676 decided to terminate their pregnancy, while 333 chose to continue it.
This occurs because there are cases in which the woman changes her mind and gives up her decision to have an abortion once she arrives at the health center. Remember that the abortion law in three causes establishes that each woman has the right to a special accompaniment program, which includes reception actions and biopsychosocial support that help her orient herself during the process.
Of those who finally accepted under any of the three causes to interrupt their pregnancy, the main reason was fetal non-viability (47.26%), that is, that the “embryo or fetus suffers from an acquired or genetic congenital pathology, incompatible with the independent extrauterine life, in any case lethal ”(see graph).
In second place are those who did it because their pregnancy posed a serious risk to the health of the mother (32.28%), so that its continuation would have been a danger to their life.
And finally, there are those who took refuge under the cause of having been victims of a rape that ended in pregnancy (20.47%).
Although the causes are relatively evenly distributed, the figures show that they vary greatly depending on the age group to which each woman belongs.
The information reveals that 83% of girls and young women between 11 and 17 years of age who had an abortion did so under the cause of rape. Of these, one in five decided to continue with their pregnancy.
The opposite occurred in the case of women over 40 years of age, in whom the cause of rape represented only 6% of the cases in contrast to a 64% of fetal infeasibility, followed by a 30% risk of life of the mother. mother.
Regarding the gestational age of interrupted pregnancies, the peak occurs at 13 weeks of gestation, gradually decreasing until reaching the last weeks with relatively low figures.
Remember that when a woman has been a victim of rape, the law provides that an abortion can be performed “as long as no more than twelve weeks of gestation have elapsed.” In the case of a girl under 14 years of age, the procedure may be carried out provided that no more than fourteen weeks have elapsed.
As we mentioned previously, regardless of whether the woman decides to finally terminate her pregnancy or not, the Law provides that she has the right to a biopsychosocial support program that welcomes her and provides her support. Of the women who went to a health center under any of the three causes, 84% chose to accept this service.
The foregoing is independent of the forecast that the woman has or the type of establishment she decides to go to for an abortion. Most of the women who underwent this procedure did it with Fonasa and in a public space.
Without grounds
The Chilean Penal Code is clear when it comes to abortions. In its article 344, it states that “the woman who, outside of the cases permitted by law, causes her abortion or consents that another person causes it, will be punished with lesser imprisonment to the maximum extent.”
According to data from the Public Ministry, since September 23, 2017, when Law No. 21,030 was published, and until December 31, 2020, the agency has received 474 complaints of abortion crimes. These include mostly women, as well as third parties or doctors involved in the action.
Of these complaints, only 8 have received a final conviction. One where the crime was consensual abortion for non-regulated reasons (articles 342 N ° 3 and 344), four for abortion without consent and three for abortion committed by doctors for non-regulated reasons.
No official information
Because it is penalized, in Chile there are no official records on the number of abortions performed outside the law 21,030. There are also no concrete figures regarding the deaths associated with it. However, there are some estimated studies on the phenomenon.
For example, a report carried out by the Diego Portales University in 2013 raised an estimated figure of 60 to 70 thousand illegal abortions per year.
On the other hand, in an article prepared by researchers from the Miles Corporation at the University of Barcelona, it is pointed out that the figure in Chile is extremely variable.
“There are annual estimates of clandestine abortions that vary between 160,000 – according to the only national study carried out in 1990 – to 200,000 according to data from 1994. Data from 2012 are added – although less corroborated – which indicate that there are 60,000 clandestine abortions and in by 2015 this figure would reach 300,000 ”.
– Miles Corporation Extract
From the Minsal they corroborated that, indeed, there are no figures or information regarding the number of women who have had an abortion outside the law of the three causes.
If we review the Minsal hospital discharge records for abortion we can see that these do not distinguish those that occur spontaneously from those that could have been induced by the woman or a third party to terminate the pregnancy prematurely.
According to DEIS figures, in 2019 there were 23,691 registered abortion-related cases in Chile, the majority being spontaneous abortions, medical abortions or simply unspecified abortions.
This can occur either because the woman prefers not to go to a health center, as she runs the risk of being reported, or because the grounds for admission are classified under another category from the establishment itself. Along the same lines, deaths due to the interruption of pregnancy without cause are not included in the maternal mortality figures.
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