Shocking Video Shows The Reality Of Abortion Bans

Activists across Chile have been stepping up to show their support for President Michelle Bachelet’s bill that will allow abortions if the life of the mother is at risk and if the fetus has no chance of surviving. Prior to this, since 1989, the only legal form of abortion in Chile has been an accidental abortion with absolutely no exceptions. Which is to say, there is no legal abortion; You simply won't be charged with a crime for having a miscarriage. ("Gee, thanks." – all Chilean women.) One non-government organization, Miles Chile, has decided to show their support of the bill in an incredibly graphic—yet effective—way: They created a series of videos where women provide instructions on how to perform accidental abortions. The women in the videos provide instructions on falling down the stairs, tripping onto pointed objects like fire hydrants, and walking in front of traffic to show the lengths women in Chile most go to in order to legally end an unwanted pregnancy. The shocking, hard-to-watch videos bring into clarity the kind of unsafe, horrific repercussions of not giving women access to safe healthcare and reproductive options.

The executive director of Miles Chile says that the videos are raw for a reason, “These are deliberately created violent fiction scenes created to spark debate,” she told CNN Chile. The videos show the dangerous lengths women must go through to perform an abortion on themselves, and the amount of self-harm they must inflict to exercise any control over their bodies.

If Miles Chile were looking to stir emotions or make people think about the realities some women must face, their campaign certainly achieves that. The hauntingly nonchalant attitudes of the women as they go to detailed lengths to describe how to puncture your stomach or get hit be a car to induce abortions drives the point home: Women have a right to make decisions about their own bodies, and they have the right to do it in a safe environment.

You can watch the rest of the videos in Miles Chile's YouTube Channel.

Image: Miles Chile/YouTube