</s>Chilean lawmakers have approved a bill that would legalize abortion in limited circumstances and end the socially conservative country's status as the last in South America with a blanket ban on the procedure.

The measure approved late Wednesday allows abortions when a woman's life is in danger, when a fetus is not viable and in cases of rape. President Michelle Bachelet, a physician and former head of U.N. Women, backs the bill and has said she will sign it into law.

It must still be approved by the Constitutional Tribunal, however, and opposition senators argue that the measure violates the constitution.

Chile legalized abortion for medical reasons in 1931, but the procedure was then banned under all circumstances during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

The bill's passage comes as views continue to shift on social issues once considered taboo in the heavily Roman Catholic nation.

Chile only began to allow divorce in 2004. In 2015, Congress recognized civil unions for same-sex couples. And recently it became the first country in Latin America to allow the sale of cannabis-based medicines at pharmacies.

Chile is one of four countries that currently prohibit abortion in all cases, according to the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, though a handful of others have rules so restrictive that they amount to de facto bans.

Women who get abortions in Chile are subject to up to five years in jail, as are medical personnel who assist with the procedure. By law, hospitals are obligated to report suspected abortions to police.</s>Chile's Congress has approved a bill that would legalize abortion in limited circumstances — ending the country's status as the last in South America to ban all abortions.

The measure approved by lawmakers late Wednesday allows abortions when a mother's life is in danger, when the fetus is not viable and in cases of rape.

President Michelle Bachelet backs the measure and has said she would sign it into law. But it still needs to be approved by Chile's Constitutional Tribunal.

Chile legalized abortion for medical reasons in 1931. But abortion was banned under all circumstances during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.</s>SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile's Chamber of Deputies fell one vote short of passing the Senate version of a bill easing the country's strict abortion law, a surprise setback to President Michelle Bachelet and abortion rights advocates.

The Senate narrowly passed a bill on Wednesday that would legalize abortion when a woman's life is in danger, when a fetus is unviable or when a pregnancy results from rape.

On Thursday, the lower chamber - which passed an earlier version of the bill over a year ago - was expected to approve the modifications made by the Senate.

That effort failed when one of the more conservative lawmakers in Bachelet's center-left coalition abstained. Other lawmakers were on vacation, leaving the government one vote short of the 67 needed for passage.

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

Although Chile is one of Latin America's more socially conservative countries and the Roman Catholic Church retains significant influence, opinion polls show about 70 percent of Chileans favor easing the abortion ban.

The bill will now go through a messy reconciliation process that could take weeks. Abortion rights advocates fear the final version may pass after a change in the composition of Chile's Constitutional Court scheduled for late August, which is expected to make it more conservative.

That change could be critical, as the conservative opposition has pledged to challenge the abortion bill in the court.

"History could have been changed. We just needed one vote to avoid what happened," center-left lawmaker Marco Antonio Nunez said in televised remarks.</s>FILE PHOTO: Texas governor Greg Abbott speaks during an interview on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, U.S. on July 14, 2015.

(Reuters) - Abortion rights groups filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking to block a Texas law that bans the most common method of second-trimester abortion which critics argue erodes women's rights.

The challenge, which came six weeks after the state's governor signed the law, was the latest salvo in a battle over state laws enacted by Republican-controlled state legislatures that advocates say limit access to abortion.

"The law we challenged today in Texas is part of a nationwide scheme to undermine these constitutional rights and ban abortion one restriction at a time," Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Austin by Texas abortion provider Whole Woman's Health, Planned Parenthood groups and others.

The suit, which names Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and others as defendants, seeks an injunction and a ruling that the law is unconstitutional.

Paxton declined to comment on the challenge.

Anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life last month praised the legislation, calling it the "most significant pro-life victory" of the state's legislative session.

The lawsuit targets a portion of the law - known as Senate Bill 8, which is set to go into effect on Sept. 1 - that bans dilation and evacuation abortion procedures.

The Texas law refers to the procedure as "dismemberment abortion," in which a combination of suction and forceps are used to bring tissue through the cervix.

Opponents of the law say that after about 15 weeks of pregnancy it is the safest method of abortion.

Seven other U.S. states have approved similar bans, prompting legal challenges that prevented the bans from taking effect in Louisiana, Kansas and Oklahoma, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Last year, Whole Woman's Health led a legal fight that ended in the U.S. Supreme Court striking down a Texas abortion law that had shuttered nearly half the state's clinics by imposing strict regulations on doctors and facilities.

The latest Texas law, signed in June by the state's Republican Governor Greg Abbott, also requires abortion providers to dispose of aborted fetal tissue through burial or cremation. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit intend to challenge that provision as well.

The state law was enacted despite the fact that U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks in Austin put a temporary halt on a similar state regulation on fetal tissue disposal in January.</s>Chile's Congress on Wednesday eased a strict ban on abortion in effect since the final days of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship nearly three decades ago.

The measure, which passed with a 22-13 vote, allows abortion in cases of rape, if the mother's life is at risk or if the fetus presents a deadly birth defect.

It now awaits a ruling by the Constitutional Court at the request of the opposition.

Until now, the South American country has been part of a small group of socially conservative nations that barred abortion under all circumstances -- including the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Gabon, Haiti, Malta, Nicaragua, the Philippines and Senegal.

"We are satisfied. We have delivered alternatives, and safe health care options, to all women, regardless of the decisions they make," said Claudia Pascual, minister for women and gender equality.

In this deeply conservative country, the measure has been a priority for leftist President Michelle Bachelet, Chile's first woman president and a pediatrician by training.

Bachelet has worked since 2015 to overturn the strict ban on abortions put in place in 1989, in the final days of the Pinochet dictatorship.

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

Until the Pinochet-era change, abortion already was legal in Chile for five decades -- in case of danger to the mother's life or an unviable fetus.

Bachelet, after serving a first term as president, became the first chief of UN Women -- the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

She pledged to see the easing of the ban enacted before she leaves office in March 2018.

Conservative groups have historically had great influence in Chile, though they have lost ground in recent years. Chileans had to wait until 2004 to be able to divorce, and until just two years ago to enter into same-sex civil unions.</s>The vote is a major victory for pro-choice supporters who have fought for decades against Chile's draconian ban on abortion. Since 1989, abortion has been illegal without exception.

The strict law was implemented by dictator Augusto Pinochet as one of his last acts in office. Activists have long criticized the ban.

"The illegality of abortion in Chile takes a devastating toll on women's health and lives," a Human Right's Watch report stated. "The consequences of illegal abortion constitute a leading cause of maternal mortality in this country."

The bill passed Wednesday decriminalizes abortion in cases of rape, if the mother's life is at risk or if the fetus presents a deadly birth defect.

"A bill has been approved that opens up options for women," said Claudia Pascual Grau, Chile's minister of women and gender equity. "We have generated safe health benefits, an accompanying program that is with all women, regardless of the decision they take." Activists have long criticized the ban Chile's lower Congressional house, the Chamber of Deputies, had 70 votes in favor, 45 votes against and 1 abstention. The Senate approved the bill by 22 votes in favor and 13 against. Despite the mandate, Chile's conservative Independent Democratic Union party did object. "Our constitution today protects the life of the unborn, so this bill violates the constitution," the organization said in a tweet. The bill will now go to the Constitutional Court for final review. The vote is an important triumph for President Michelle Bachelet, who campaigned on easing the abortion ban and has long championed women's rights. In 2011, Bachelet unapologetically supported abortion in the case of an 11-year-old girl who became pregnant after being raped by her mother's boyfriend -- an incident that rattled much of the conservative country. Bachelet was President of Chile from 2006-2010 and was again elected in 2013. Between her terms, she was tapped to become the inaugural Executive Director of UN Women, a United Nations agency created to promote gender equality around the world. "Today women recover a basic right that we should never miss: decide when we live moments of pain," President Bachelet said in a tweet after the vote.</s>The new law authorizes terminating a pregnancy if it endangers the life of the mother; when the fetus is unviable; and when pregnancy resulted from rape.

Opposition lawmakers have argued the law would prompt false rape claims and said medical professionals who objected to abortion on moral grounds should not be forced to perform the procedure. The law allows the objectors to refuse unless the mother’s life is in imminent danger and no other medical professionals are available.

A public opinion poll conducted by the research firm Cadem last month found that 70 percent of respondents supported legalizing abortion under the criteria described in the law. The poll included 705 respondents and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

Abortion-rights groups say 60,000 to 70,000 clandestine abortions are performed in Chile each year, often in unsafe conditions. The risks are not solely medical. Any participant in an abortion in Chile may be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. From 2010 to 2014, nearly 500 people were charged in abortion cases, 86 percent of them women who had terminated a pregnancy, according to Miles, a reproductive rights group.

Conservative lawmakers are hoping the Constitutional Tribunal, which has eight male and two female judges, will find that the law is at odds with a provision of Chile’s Constitution that protects the life of the unborn. The court could decide whether it wants to review the law as early as next week. If the court chooses not to, the law would automatically take effect. If it decides to review, the court must rule on the law’s legality before Aug. 28.

“The Tribunal has the opportunity to dignify Chilean women by restoring a right they had until 1989, respecting their autonomy to make decisions in situations as painful as these three scenarios,” said Claudia Dides, the director of Miles.
Chilean lawmakers have approved a bill that would legalize abortion in limited circumstances and end the socially conservative country's status as the last in South America with a blanket ban on the procedure.