Chile’s Constitutional Court has legalised abortion, ending the country’s absolute ban on the procedure.
Court ruling accepted the making abortion legal in cases of rape, threat to the mother’s life or deadly birth defects.
The Senate had approved the abortion bill last month, with President Michelle Bachelet vowing to sign it into law.
The legislation was passed in its final form earlier in August, but conservative legislators then challenged its constitutionality.
With the court’s ruling, the bill has now become law.
Chile is a South American country occupying a long, narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far south.
Chilean territory includes the Pacific islands of Juan Fernández, Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas, and Easter Island in Oceania.
