Legal, safe and free

Hi everyone, I'm going to talk about the legalization of abortion. Currently, abortion in Chile is penalized except in 3 causes: risk of the mother's life, fetal infeasibility and rape. However, I believe that abortion should be legal in any circumstance. 

On the one hand, when we talk about abortion, we also talk about the sexual and reproductive rights of a society, mainly of women. And this set of rights is linked to human rights, such as the right to health, to individual freedom or to live free from abuse. Although these 3 causes are an advance, they are not enough to protect women in terms of their health, sexuality, reproductivity, or freedom of choice, which shows discrimination by the Chilean government regarding women's rights. Even from the feminist perspective, it could be said that figure of women is directed towards a maternal role imposed by society and the State. Women are only see in terms of their reproductive function that serves society to stay on its feet. That would explain why abortion is penalized in an article called "Crimes against family order and public morality." 

On the other hand, because the 3 causes are not enough, the cases of clandestine abortions are very high, an estimated 200 thousand a year. This is worrying because many women are suffering damage to their health. Not only physical, also psychological, due to the fear of being criminally prosecuted, death in case of complications, mistreatment in hospital centers in case of needing assistance and even, the abandonment that involves living this process when there isn't type of certainty or security. Besides, this generally occurs in women with few resources, so the situation is further aggravated, either by the abortive method, lack of access to information or knowledge. 

Although the legalization of abortion in 3 causes is an important advance, I think it is a pending discussion in Chile. So, considering the above arguments mentioned,  this law doesn't guarantee the human rights of women nor does it eliminate the discrimination and violence they suffer. In addition, Chilean society must reflect on sexual education, reproductive rights and above all, on the autonomy of the women's body, motherhood and abortion.