Chile: One Step Forward, One Step Back

Abstract

Over the last decade and a half an array of academic groups, civil society organizations, health authorities, and policymakers in the ruling Coalition has mobilized to incorporate emergency contraception (EC) into health policies and programs in Chile. The registration of a dedicated emergency contraceptive pill (ECP) was approved by the Supreme Court in 2005 after a series of complicated and hard fought regulatory and legal battles. Yet in 2008, in response to a petition filed by a group of parliamentarians, the Constitutional Tribunal banned the distribution of EC through the public sector, thereby jeopardizing low-income women’s access to affordable post-coital contraception. This decision sparked fierce debate, public demonstrations, and renewed efforts by policymakers to guarantee access to EC and other contraceptives without restriction. In 2009 the Chilean Parliament approved a law on information, counseling, and servicesrelated to fertility regulation; the law includes language guaranteeing public sector distribution of EC and all other contraceptive methods approved by the National Regulatory Agency.