Chile to Resume
Contraception Handout
By AP from the
washingtonpost.com on the Web, January 31, 2007
SANTIAGO, Chile Jan.30 -- The
government on Tuesday said it will resume its program to provide free
"morning-after" contraceptives to girls as young as 14, but will also offer them
advice by specialists.
The program started in September last year, but it was halted earlier this month
when the Constitutional Court ruled it had been improperly implemented by
administrative decree rather than by a presidential decree or legislation.
The government said it would correct the legal problem.
President Michelle Bachelet on Monday signed a new decree, which should be
cleared by the General Comptroller's Office this week, allowing resumption of
the program, according to Health Minister Soledad Barria.
She said that the government introduced a change in the program by appointing
physicians and psychologists to offer free advice to girls requesting the pill.
Conservative critics were still upset by the program, terming the pill a form of
abortion and objecting to the idea it can be given young girls without notifying
their parents.
The program triggered heated debate in a country considered politically liberal
but socially conservative. Chile prohibits abortion in all cases and
divorce was only legalized here in 2004.
Some conservative mayors have refused to let their city health services
distribute the pills.
One of them, Pablo Zalaquet of La Florida near Santiago, called Bachelet's
decree "a black day for our country, a slap to the institution of family."
The morning-after pill contains a high dose of the most common ingredient in
regular birth-control pills. When taken within 72 hours of unprotected
sex, the two-pill series can lower the risk of pregnancy by up to 89 percent.
Officials say it will not work on a woman who is already pregnant.
Before the program was implemented, the pill was available only to women who had
been raped. The pill was legalized here in 2002 after a Supreme Court
battle.
Bachelet has said her program is necessary because the price -- $22 per two-pill
package -- is beyond the reach of poorer women.
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