Chile president-elect appoints abortion opponent Judith Marín as gender minister

Chile’s president-elect José Antonio Kast has named Judith Marín as the country’s women and gender equality minister. Marín, 30, is described as a vehement opponent of abortion and has repeatedly stated her support for life 'from conception to natural death'. Marín was once ejected from Chile’s senate by police for screaming 'return to the Lord' during a vote to decriminalise abortion under restricted circumstances.

She is an evangelical former student church group president who belonged to the Eagles of Jesus, a far-right Christian group that recruits at universities, and has publicly defended the 'natural family' as a central tenet of society. In October she said: 'Our country is going through a spiritual, social, moral and political crisis, and more than ever we, the children of God, need to stand up.' Kast, a Catholic father of nine who has been a staunch opponent of abortion, announced his first cabinet late on Tuesday in Santiago.

He said 'This unity cabinet was not formed to administer normality' and that 'it was brought together to face a national emergency.' During the campaign he largely avoided discussing his hardline conservative social views, saying only in a televised debate 'I have not changed my convictions.' The new cabinet is drawn mostly from the right and far right, with 13 men and 11 women and an average age of 54, and includes two lawyers who represented the former dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Key Topics

Politics, Judith Marín, José Antonio Kast, Chile, Abortion Decriminalisation, Augusto Pinochet