Embodying Memory

Women and the Legacy of the Military Government in Chile

Bibliographic Data

ID3136732
AuthorsMaría Elena Acuña Moenne (corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume79
Issue1
Pages150-161
Publication date2005-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0141-7789 • E-ISSN: 1466-4380
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1057/palgrave.fr.9400203
OpenAlexW1996349891
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited3

The article argues that the prohibition of abortion in Chile, other than when the mother's life is in danger, is a form of human rights violation targeting women specifically. The Pro-Birth Policy was established in Pinochet's Chile as a response to the previous government's attempts, under Allende, to encourage family planning and to educate and inform women about their choices. This had been done to put an end to the increase in back-street abortions with the inevitable toll on women's lives. Pinochet's regime reversed these women-oriented family planning policies, and criminalized abortion, on the basis of costs to the state and, more importantly, the need to increase the birth rate for reasons of national security. Women's bodies were used by the Pinochet regime, both by sexual violence and torture, and by the denial of women's reproductive and sexual rights, as a means to impose discipline and order on society. The fact that this is still not acknowledged in the construction of a collective memory indicates that the issue has not yet been resolved in democratic Chile

Abortion · Democracy · Denial · Domestic violence · Feminism · Government (linguistics) · Human rights · Human sexuality · Poison control · Political science · Politics · Population · Reproductive health · Reproductive rights · Sociology · Suicide prevention · Torture · Gender Studies · Law · Political and Social Dynamics in Chile and Latin America · Psychology

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