CHILE: GOVERNMENT BROADENS WOMEN'S ACCESS TO MORNING-AFTER PILL.
Chile's President Michelle Bachelet expanded public access to contraceptives in September by allowing women and girls as young as 14 to obtain contraception--including the morning-after pill. The move angered church groups, although a federal court rejected an effort to block the contraceptive-distribution program.
Morning-after pill available to 14 year-olds
Chile began supplying free morning-after pills to girls 14 years old or older in the last week of September under a program that has created an uproar in the politically leftist but socially conservative country, which still outlaws all abortions and only legalized divorce two years ago (see NotiSur, 2003-08-08, 2004-05-21 and 2004-12-17). The liberalized contraceptive policy is close to the heart of President Bachelet, a Socialist physician who took office as Chile's first female president in March vowing to promote equality between men and women (see NotiSur, 2006-03-17).
"Equality means that, for a person who does not have choices, who does not have options, we have to give them these options," Bachelet told the Associated Press at the UN in late September. "We will focus more on sexual education, on prevention, and have a whole range of alternatives that include abstinence, natural methods, and a contraceptive program. At the last we have the emergency pill, because it is for that--an emergency."
When asked if her strong support of the morning-after pill could be a gateway to introducing legalized abortion, Bachelet deflected the question. She simply said abortion was "not part of our program."
It also echoes a debate between reformers and conservatives across Latin America, where the Catholic Church is a powerful force and opposes most efforts to broaden women's reproductive rights (see NotiSur, 2005-03-18 and 2006-05-26).
The government program provides contraceptives--including the morning-after pill--to girls as young as 14 without notifying their parents. Until now, the age limit was 16, and the morning-after pill was given only to women who had been raped.
The government began handing out the pills at the end of September after the Fifth Appeals Court of Santiago lifted an injunction won by two conservative mayors and a Catholic parents association. Pablo Zalaquet, mayor of the middle-class Santiago suburb of La Florida, called the Sept. 22 ruling "a slap in the face of Chile's mothers and fathers," and said the court battle would continue.
Health Minister Maria Soledad...
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