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Formal and Informal Institutional Challenges to Women’s Reproductive Rights: Emergency Contraception and the Constitutional Tribunal in Chile

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Book cover Gender, Institutions, and Change in Bachelet’s Chile

Part of the book series: Studies of the Americas ((STAM))

Abstract

Important legal and political battles behind the legalization and distribution of Emergency Contraception1 (EC) in Chile took place between 2000 and 2010 under the presidencies of Ricardo Lagos and Michele Bachelet. The distribution of EC and its ensuing judicialization had the unexpected effect of reopening the long postponed debate in Chilean society about the right to abortion. In 2006, the case was brought to the Constitutional Tribunal (TC) challenging President Bachelet’s decision to distribute EC via the national health system. After a series of judicial and political battles the executive succeeded in its aim to promote EC as a form of contraception.

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Authors
  1. Carmen Sepúlveda-Zelaya
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Manchester, UK

    Georgina Waylen (professor of Politics) (professor of Politics)

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© 2016 Carmen Sepúlveda-Zelaya

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Sepúlveda-Zelaya, C. (2016). Formal and Informal Institutional Challenges to Women’s Reproductive Rights: Emergency Contraception and the Constitutional Tribunal in Chile. In: Waylen, G. (eds) Gender, Institutions, and Change in Bachelet’s Chile. Studies of the Americas. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137501981_8

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