The UN special rapporteur, Tlaleng Mofokeng, assured that “the protection of access to abortion is necessary to make effective the rights to equality and non-discrimination.”
The United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on the right to health, Tlaleng Mofokeng, assured that in Chile there is an “excessive use” of conscientious objection on the issue of abortion and asserted that “Legal impediments to access to abortion are violations of human rights“.
“Chile’s greatest challenge is the obligation to guarantee a adequate, equitable and sustainable national financing for health“said Mofokeng, who visited our country between November 21 and december 4 of this year.
Along the same lines, the rapporteur stated that “Legal restrictions violate the right to health by restricting access to timely and safe abortions, quality goods, services and facts.. “They violate human dignity by restricting the freedoms contemplated in the right to health, in particular decision-making and bodily integrity.”
For this reason, he assured that “The protection of access to abortion is necessary to make effective the rights to equality and non-discriminationto life, to privacy, to health and to not suffer torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, as well as to not suffer gender violence, among other rights.”
UN Rapporteur questioned “excessive use” of conscientious objection on the issue of abortion
when delving into the issue of abortion in Chile, the UN special rapporteur stated that “Especially worrying is the excessive use of conscientious objection, especially by institutionsand peer pressure on other obstetricians who do offer abortions to object consequently of stigma.”
“Other obstacles I heard about repeatedly were the lack of access in different regions of the country and judicial approval of interruptions for girls under 14 years of age who have been raped. “Such requirements increase stigmatization and re-victimize these people and cause delays in care,” he stressed.
Tlaleng Mofokeng said that although Chile is not the only country that incorporated conscientious objection in the issue of abortion, in the case of our country the issue was regulated too broadly, because although it exists in a large part of the private sector, in the public systemDoctors are hired by the State and should have the obligation to provide this health care“.
“Conscientious objection comes to medicine only when it comes to women’s health“Mofokeng stressed.