Chilean cardinal stirs controversy as country debates heartbeat law

Cardinal Fernando Chomali, the archbishop of Santiago and primate of Chile, once again addressed the country’s pending “Listen to Their Heart” bill, which seeks to mandate within the abortion protocol (authorized in Chile under three specific grounds) an opportunity for the patient to listen to the babyʼs heartbeat.

Specifically, according to the bill’s legislative summary, the measure would modify the country’s health code “to establish the duty of the doctor to inform the woman about the embryonic or fetal heart activity and to offer her the opportunity to hear it prior to the interruption of the pregnancy.”

Speaking with the Chilean newspaper La Tercera , the cardinal sought to shift the focus of the discussion to the healthcare professionals involved. “It pains me that there are doctors who agree to perform an abortion,” he lamented.

Chomali also expressed regret over a tweet in which he stated that every mother should rejoice at hearing a heartbeat. “It pains me to have been a source of division in that regard,” he emphasized.

He explained that he is opposed to abortion under any circumstances. “I believe those three grounds should not exist,” he stated, drawing on…