Anonymous (likely 2018) Chile
A woman with serious health risks was denied a legal abortion, then forced to have a C-section when her health deteriorated dangerously.
In a study that explored the experiences of four pregnant people who were legally entitled to but denied access to legal abortion in Chile, one participant was clearly denied abortion due to belief-based care denial (“conscientious objection”). The study reports that:
“The 25-year-old participant was aware of the risk of pregnancy due to her chronic health condition and became pregnant unexpectedly. Initially, she planned to keep the pregnancy and closely monitor her symptoms until her doctor informed her that the pregnancy placed her life at risk. When she asked if she was eligible for a legal abortion, the physician did not recommend an abortion for moral reasons, changed his diagnosis, and now told her the pregnancy was going well. She consulted five OB/GYNs and her chronic illness specialist during the second trimester, all of whom said her pregnancy was going well and any threats to her life would occur during the third trimester. She submitted a formal request for a legal abortion to the ethics committee of a University hospital and she was informed that they do not provide abortions. Next, she requested and was denied abortion access at a private hospital, because she was unmarried and needed to take the responsibility for her immoral behavior. The participant was ultimately hospitalized in a Catholic hospital due to complications and forced to continue her pregnancy until her health condition provoked a multisystemic failure at 29 weeks’ gestation, where she was stabilized and delivered a preterm birth by cesarean section.”
The authors noted that the woman’s experience manifested as a sense of complete loss of autonomy and agency to others who reduced her value to that of an incubator. The woman herself said: “I really felt that many times I was told that ‘you don’t matter, you are not important, what you think, what you feel, no—the only thing you are responsible for here is taking that life forward.’ In the end, you don’t matter; it only matters giving birth beyond consequences.”
Source: Failure of the Law to Grant Access to Legal Abortion in Chile. By Daniel F.M. Suárez-Baquero, Ilana G. Dzuba, Mariana Romero, C. Finley Baba, and M. Antonia Biggs. Health Equity. 2024; 8(1): 189–197. DOI: 10.1089/heq.2023.0050