Chile's abortion reform in trouble with ruling coalition split

Chile's abortion reform in trouble with ruling coalition split
Source: Reuters - Mon, 20 Jul 2015 16:41 GMT

By Gram Slattery

VALPARAISO, Chile, July 20 (Reuters) - President Michelle Bachelet's push to relax strict abortion laws in socially conservative Chile has created a rift inside her ruling coalition and key elements of the reform are likely to be scratched.

Leading lawmakers in the Christian Democrat party, the coalition's senior partner, told Reuters that fewer than a third of its 21 legislators in the lower chamber of Congress fully support the proposed reform.

That would mean Bachelet and her Socialist Party are short of the votes needed to pass the current bill.

Chile is one of only six countries with an outright ban on abortion. It had been legal in some cases but was abolished by General Augusto Pinochet late in his 1973-1990 dictatorship.

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