A 25-year-old hospital patient has been arrested in Chile after a surgeon suspected the woman had deliberately induced an abortion.



The patient had entered the Carlos Cisterna public hospital on Sunday complaining of severe abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding. She was taken to surgery but when a doctor suspected the involvement of a prescription drug known as Misotrol – widely used for abortions in Latin America – he notified Chilean police.

Chile is one of only six countries in the world where abortion is illegal under any circumstances – even rape. The current government has pledged to change this.

The woman remained in medical care and under arrest on Tuesday, according to Patricio Toro, director of the hospital in the northern city of Calama. She was not being named.

“There is a legal norm that indicates a complaint must be filed,” said Jaime Burrows, Chile’s undersecretary of public health. Burrows told Chilean press that the public health ministry had instructed medical professionals to respect patient privacy and prioritise patient-doctor confidentiality over the requirement to notify law enforcement in cases of suspected abortion.



Chilean abortion prohibitions were put in place at the very end of the Pinochet military dictatorship and remain among the most strict in the western hemisphere. Estimates of abortions in Chile range from 15,000 to 200,000 a year, with nearly all taking place in clandestine settings.

Public discussion of easing the restrictions has been a legislative priority under the current Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet, a paediatrician. Earlier this month Bachelet introduced legislation to permit termination in specific circumstances, including rape and pregnancies in which the life of the mother is at risk.

Opinion polls show nearly 70% of people support the reforms, though politicians in the extreme-right UDI and the centrist Christian Democrat party have indicated they will vote against the proposed amendments.

Then-president Sebastian Pinera caused uproar in 2013 when he praised an 11-year-old rape victim as being “brave and mature” for her decision to carry the foetus to term. Health professionals widely criticised the concept of an 11-year-old being prepared to give birth and cited the case as a prime example of why Chilean abortion laws needed to be reformed. Anti-abortion activists pushed the possibility of the child giving her own child up for adoption and applauded Pinera’s remarks.

With abortion reform being debated in the Chilean congress, both sides have mobilised. On Sunday an estimated 5,000 students and other protesters gathered outside the presidential palace in a show of support “for the life of the unborn” and to oppose the reform movement.

No details emerged on Tuesday of what – if any – charges had been filed against the detained woman. While it is rare for a patient in a public hospital to be arrested, for years Chilean police have raided private clinics and health services offices to detain doctors, nurses and midwives.