Andrea Quiroga was 12 weeks pregnant with her second child when doctors detected a serious deformation of the heart which meant that fetus would not survive. But in a country with some of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the world, the medical team was unable to offer any way to cut short the doomed pregancy.  “They told me I had to wait for my baby to die inside me,” said Quiroga, 40.  The following months were sheer torture, Quiroga said. “It was terrible: people would congratulate me for being pregnant, but what could I do? Put a sign on my belly saying ‘don’t congratulate me – the baby is going to die?’”  When her baby died in the fifth month, Quiroga was rushed to a hospital where she was in labor for 12 hours – without anesthesia – and then held the dead fetus in her hands. The baby was buried in a cemetery the following day. “Those were the longest months of my life,” Quiroga said.  Related: Abortion rights around the world – interactive  Chile is one of just six countries around the world that outlaw termination in all cases, even if the mother’s life is in danger. Women still face a five-year prison sentence for having an abortion, but an estimated 120,000 Chilean women seek illegal terminations each year – either with the help of midwives and underground abortion clinics, or by self-medicating with pills. Richer women fly to Miami, Cuba or Argentina to have the procedure in a medically safe environment.  This week, the country’s congress will debate to legalize abortion in three specific circumstances: when the pregnancy is the result of a rape, when the life of the mother is at risk and when the fetus has severe birth defects.  President Michelle Bachelet, the former head of UN Women, has made reproductive rights a central promise of her presidency, vowing radical reforms when she was swept to power for a second term in 2013.  A series of political scandals, including one involving her son Sebastian Davalos, have sent the president’s popularity plummeting: a poll released on Monday indicated 70% rejection of the once-wildly popular former pediatrician.  Despite Bachelet’s own unpopularity, the liberal causes she has championed are gaining wider acceptance in what is still a socially conservative country. An estimated 70% of Chileans support abortion in specific cases and the Congress this year approved civil unions for gay couples. The country is also pushing forward with a massive medical marijuana program.  Although Bachelet’s “New Majority” coalition holds majorities in both chambers of Congress, members of the Christian Democrat party are split, with many legislators vowing to break rank from the “New Majority” and oppose the abortion reform set for Tuesday.  The Catholic Church opposes abortion in all cases, but there are signs that its power to influence may perhaps be waning. An attempt by the Church to threaten politicians who vote in favor of abortion rights backfired spectacularly over the weekend.  In a series of full-page advertisements published on Sunday, religious leaders, including 5 Catholic bishops, warned legislators to reject the abortion vote set for Tuesday. “It will be our obligation as pastors to warn our faithful…. [of] the moral prohibition to vote in favor of a candidate who has supported the abortion project,” read one part of the campaign, published in rightwing newspaper El Mercurio.  The campaign was directed towards “Christian legislators” and included a plea for the members of parliament “to proceed with all your strength and wisdom in this historic moment for the future of our Christian nation”.  The newspaper inserts provoked an instantaneous and furious response. “Stop trying to confuse the citizenry,” responded Ricardo Rincon, a Christian Democrat party leader who suggested the Church was “badly informed or they don’t comprehend the nature and functions of legislative power. Or, which would be worst, they are attempting to influence [the vote] via declarations that are simply not true.”  Claudia Pascual, Chile’s minister of women’s affairs, accused the church of “impeding the ability to have a space to debate”. She added that Tuesday’s vote was “an invitation to debate and legislate, [and] think about how to confront a problem that exists and which Chile needs to resolve”.  Rosario Puga, spokeswoman for Miles, a Chilean NGO that supports women’s reproductive freedoms, pointed out that abortion was legal in Chile for much of the 20th century, and was only criminalized in 1989, during the last days of the Pinochet government.  “This [vote] is not really an advance; we are seeking to recover a right that we once had,” she said.  Related: 'Abortion video tutorial' ads shock Chile amid debate on easing ban  When illegal abortions fail, Chilean women are often wary of seeking emergency room treatment, as the current law obliges physicians to report patients and call the police if they suspect an abortion has been conducted. Doctors, nurses and patients have all been jailed over illegal terminations.  Earlier this year, in the northern Chilean city of Calama, a woman who attempted an abortion with the drug misoprostol arrived at the emergency room hemorrhaging dangerously. While doctors stabilized her condition they uncovered evidence of misoprostol and the physician called Chilean police. The woman was arrested at the hospital. Although she was ultimately not prosecuted, the woman now holds an arrest record.  “There are 17 rapes a day in Chile, and in many cases it is by family members,” said Maria Ines Salamanca, Program Director of the United Nations Women office in Chile. “Many of these victims are underage … This is a debate that Chile needs to have.”
Chile is one of six countries that outlaw abortion under any circumstance. But on Tuesday, its congress will debate whether to allow exceptions in extreme cases