While extremists were planning how to kill legal abortion providers here in the U.S, In Chile, where abortion is illegal in all cases, a network of feminist organizations launched a hotline that will give women information about Misoprostol, a drug available in Chile by prescription to treat gastric ulcers, to safely and effectively induce abortion.

Supporters at the hotline’s launching, chanted “Contraception – so we don’t need abortions. Safe abortions – so we don’t die,” reported the Valparaiso Times. Spokesperson Gloria Maira of the Women’s Health Network of Chile said “We consider the right to a safe abortion a health issue.”

Abortion has been illegal in Chile since 1989. There are no exceptions in the law to account for rape, incest, or the life and health of the woman. Despite this, Chile has one of the highest abortion rates in Latin America, with about a third of pregnancies ending in abortion. Hundreds of women die each year from botched abortions in the country.

When I lived in Chile, I learned of the vast underground abortion networks that exist, from documentaries and my college roommates at the pension where I lived. It’s scary to me that young women in any circumstances must resort to these unregulated networks in order to take care of themselves.

Via / The Feminist Majority Daily News