PRESIDENT Michelle Bachelet sent legislation to Chile’s Congress on Saturday proposing to allow some abortions in the socially conservative South American nation.

Chile is among the few countries that ban abortion in all circumstances.

The Bill would decriminalise abortions in three types of cases: malformation of a foetus, a pregnancy posing a threat to the life of a woman carrying a foetus, and conception caused by rape.

President Bachelet’s proposal is likely to face a difficult debate in Congress, where several opposition legislators and even some members of her New Majority bloc have already announced that they will fight the change.

The president announced last May that she would push such legislation.

According to figures released by President Bachelet, about 16,500 women are hospitalised each year in Chile due to complications of pregnancy or because of foetal malformations.