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Chilean Women Renounce Catholicism In Protest of No Public Access to Morning After Pill

12:00 H | Topics: Activism - Chile - Health - Religion - Women

When a Constitutional Court of Chile blocked a government-sponsored program that distributed emergency contraceptives to women as young as 14 free of charge, thousands of people protested in the capital of Santiago.
Now, hundreds are planning to renounce their membership in the Roman Catholic Church on April 29, since the court's decision is linked to the Vatican's position that the morning after pill is akin to at best birth control, at worst, abortion.

Mujeres Publicas, or Public Women, a women's rights group in Santiago, has used e-mail to organize the "massive apostasy," that is, an active rejection of the Catholic faith. Group members say that roughly 500 people have signed up to participate so far and they expect the figure to reach 1,000. Participants are being asked to sign a letter requesting the Catholic Church remove their names from all records and then deliver the document to their nearest archdiocese. Women from each of Chile's 15 regions have committed to the abandonment of their faith. "We wanted to do something other than convoking marches that would protest the church's public health policies," said organization spokesperson Lorena Etchberry. "We are not against any religion or any church in specific, but rather we are protesting the fact that the church is interfering in matters of the Chilean government. We have the right to decide what to do with our bodies, and we also want poor women to have the right to decide."

Chile is overwhelmingly a Catholic nation. Look at the reaction when the Virgin del Carmen, the patron saint of Chile, was burned.

This same Catholic identity is what keeps abortion illegal in Chile.

Via / Women's eNews, TVN de Chile

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