One of these days, humanity will deal with life as it IS, not what they think it should be

[the_future_modernes]

CHILE: Activists Demand Humane Treatment for Women Who Abort

SANTIAGO, Aug 28 (IPS) - Some 30 members of the Chilean Health Ministry's Consultative Council on Gender and Women's Health have asked the government to enforce a directive ordering humane and compassionate treatment for women who have had an abortion.

Three representatives of the Consultative Council delivered a letter to Health Minister Álvaro Erazo Wednesday, demanding that he enforce his own instructions, sent Apr. 24 to the heads of every public health service in the country.

"This is a protest against the disclosure of the identities of young women who had abortions and were admitted to public hospitals," Adriana Gómez, of the Latin American and Caribbean Women's Health Network, told IPS. She handed over the letter along with Rosa Ferrada, of the Movement for the Emancipation of Chilean Women, and Rosa Yáñez, of the Open Forum on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights.

Gómez was referring to two women who were recently admitted to hospitals suffering from complications after abortions induced with misoprostol, a medicine prescribed for gastric ulcers that is effective for terminating pregnancy.

The names and addresses of the women were reported in the media, and they were both prosecuted for the crime of abortion, which carries a three- to five-year prison sentence.

In Chile, abortion is banned without exceptions, even if the mother's life is at risk. In spite of this, unofficial figures indicate that between 120,000 and 160,000 women voluntarily terminate their pregnancies every year in this country of 16 million people. MORE