Santiago, Chile
The Health Committee of Chile’s Chamber of Deputies has voted out a measure to permit the killing of human fetuses in three cases: rape, fetal malformation, and danger to the life of the mother. According to opinion polls, each of these “exceptions” to the protection of life enjoys public support. A July 2015 poll by Plaza Publica-CADEM reports 74 percent support abortion when the life of the mother is endangered, 72 percent in case of rape, and 72 percent when there is a high probability the fetus will not survive, whereas according to the constitution, “the law protects the life of the unborn.” Of course, the Constitution is not there to protect the lives of the popular, and the well being of the well loved, it exists to protect those who are disliked and discarded.

President Michelle Bachelet’s political coalition has a majority of votes in Congress, and they can force legislation on many fronts. The government coalition includes militants who would like to see abortion legalized under an even wider set of circumstances, and others whose consciences pull them one way, even as the leaders of their parties are pushing in the other. But on abortion there is no middle ground. The core supporters of the abortion measure know that once the constitutional protections of the unborn are violated, they can make quick work of the remaining limitations on abortion, and the slaughter will begin in earnest. Today, approximately three-quarters of all children born in Chile are born outside the protections of marriage. While in a small fraction of cases both parents are committed to raising their child together, in most of these cases the mother is economically alone. No prizes for guessing what happens to hundreds of thousands of defenseless little people when abortion becomes “safe”, legal and available.