Boric hits the table on individual freedoms: announces a legal abortion law and pushes a euthanasia law

Chilean President Gabriel Boric announced this Saturday before Congress in Valparaíso that he will give urgency to the euthanasia and palliative care bill that is in the Chilean Senate, “in an act of empathy, responsibility and respect.” Furthermore, in his third Public Account before the Nation, in the most important republican milestone each year, Boric has highlighted the need to have a democratic debate on sexual and reproductive rights. Along these lines, he announced that the Chilean Executive, which has less than two years left in its mandate, will introduce a legal abortion bill during the second half of 2024. “The women of Chile deserve their right to decide,” he noted.

In a Public Account without major announcements, where the left-wing president dedicated himself mainly to highlighting the achievements achieved during the two and a half years of his mandate, the knock on the table regarding individual freedoms has been one of the protagonists of the speech. Of course, there was a tense moment in the hall of honor of the National Congress after the two announcements were made known: an opposition deputy left the room. “It is not strange that it is a male deputy who has left the room. Because it is women who have the right to decide,” said Boric after Sergio Bobadilla, deputy of the Independent Democratic Union (UDI), left upset. Other opposition parliamentarians followed him, among them, Agustín Romero (Republican Party), Miguel Mellado (National Renovation), Francesca Muñoz (Christian Social Party), Sara Concha (Christian Conservative Party), Gustavo Benavente (UDI) and Eduardo Durán (Renovación National).

Promoting legal, free, safe and free abortion was one of the campaign promises that brought Boric to La Moneda. “It is no mystery to anyone that the current conformation of Congress is not designed for that,” the Minister of Women and Gender Equality, Antonia Orellana, told EL PAÍS, referring to the majority that the opposition enjoys in Parliament. . The president was already showing signs of installing the abortion debate in Chile. On March 8, on International Women’s Day, he announced his intention to advance a comprehensive abortion law. In those days, the president spoke that his expectations were not to reach an agreement with those who have expressed permanent rejection, but with those who are in favor. As Minister Orellana explained to this newspaper, until March there was no agreement among feminists. “There are those who propose that we must focus on a better application of the three causes, something that we are already doing with the GES, because by providing greater first attention, the number of girls who have been able to access interruption for rape in time has also increased. , as well as with inspection, which had not been done in previous years. And there are those who consider that every event must have a law,” she described.

Regarding the practice of illegal abortion in Chile, the most conservative studies, such as that of the Melisa Institute, at the Catholic University of the Santísima Concepción, indicate that there are about 30,000 per year, while other estimates handle figures of up to 150,000 per year, such as the what the Chilean Institute of Reproductive Medicine does, according to the figures managed by the Ministry of Women.

In addition to the bill for comprehensive abortion, Boric also assured that Chilean society has a “great pending issue” with the response to those who suffer from incurable terminal diseases that lead to an advanced and irreversible decrease in their capacities. The president spoke of placing great urgency on the euthanasia bill for those suffering from “persistent and intolerable physical suffering, which cannot be alleviated and which he or the patient considers unacceptable.”

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