Chile Enters Final Phase to Ease Full Abortion Ban

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has welcomed the Chilean Senate's approval of a law that decriminalizes abortion in three exceptional cases and hopes that it will receive final support from the Chamber of Deputies.

Chile's senate narrowly passed a bill to legalize certain terminations on Wednesday in a win for President Michelle Bachelet's center-left coalition and campaign groups.

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After a long and sometimes fractious overnight debate, the senate voted to legalize abortion when a woman's life is in danger, when a fetus is unviable, and when a pregnancy results from rape.

Chile is one of only a handful of countries worldwide where abortion is illegal without exception. The ban was put in place during the closing days of Augusto Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship, and Bachelet pledged reform when she took office for the second time in 2014.

The bill will now be returned to Chile's lower house to be reconciled with a version passed there. That is expected to happen within the week, possiboly as early as Thursday, allowing it to become law.

Senate approval had been seen as the biggest hurdle for the measure, given opposition from some Christian Democrats within Bachelet's own coalition, as well as lawmakers from the right-wing Chile Vamos bloc.

"It's a historic morning," Bachelet said in front of the presidential palace after the bill passed. "The senate approved decriminalizing abortion in three cases, which means we can be a country where women can make the best decision possible when faced with such situations."

Polls show around 70 percent of Chileans favor easing the abortion ban.

However, the conservative opposition has pledged to challenge the reform in the courts.

"It has been a sad day for Chile," said Jacqueline van Rysselberghe, a senator for the far-right UDI party. "We are going to take it to the constitutional tribunal (to try to block it)."

Under current law, abortion is punishable by up to five years in prison.

However, about 30,000 provoked or spontaneous terminations are recorded each year in the country, though it is estimated that clandestine opertations could number around 160,000, according to a pro-abortion group.