I agree.

I like good news.

A real and realistic policy to reduce abortion?

Not if you're a Republican.

Yeah, someone in the White House is probably watching. And as a result they're probably drawing up invasion plans. This will end up putting Chile ahead of Venezuela on Bush's list of evil-doers. :-)

How civilised of them.

They are too busy constructing an "intrusive" government and cow-towing to fundies for votes.

No Name, you took the words right out of my mouth.

Can everyone here say Allende?

But I can think of better ways for my tax dollars to spent besides allowing teenagers and others to have all the sex they want. If that's what they want to do, fine, but I do not want to be the one paying for it. I may approve of a plan to distribute free condoms instead, as oral contraception does not protect against sexually transmitted diseases.

Looks like Chile is a country I can add to my list of "places to escape to when the Republicans turn this country into Gilead and I have to run away from my life as a handmaid."

It's fantastic to see a country letting young women make their own reproductive decisions and making birth control equally available to all women, regardless of income level. I sure hope someone in the White House is watching.

I hope someone who will be in the next White House is watching.

"But I can think of better ways for my tax dollars to spent besides allowing teenagers and others to have all the sex they want. If that's what they want to do, fine, but I do not want to be the one paying for it"

Sure, because jails and foster care and abortions are all so economical. You make real sense there.

This is indeed great news. Abortion is still illegal in Chile, though, and I think Bachelet will have a harder time getting that changed.

You can fuck 'em and then just shove a pill down their throats. Nobody gets pregnant, nobody gets an abortion, nobody has to be responsible, and the best thing is that we can all pretend that the girls are in complete control of their lives!

I'm sure that the White House is watching. No doubt there will soon be an announcement that Chile is on the list of countries that support terror, and by terror, I mean reproductive rights. Expect to see sanctions brought up within the security council within the next month. We have to act now, before the rising threat of female empowerment has a chance to turn into a mushroom cloud.

I pay enough taxes that I'm pretty sure that we can cover both oral contraceptives and condoms. I think that the cost of passing those out free to all takers will more than offset the current real costs that are incurred by policies that are basically designed to encourage unplanned pregnancies. I would much rather see teenagers finishing high school, going on to college and contributing to the economy...I think it's a pretty good investment.

If you want to be a beancounter about it, it seems pretty obvious that cost of welfare and social programs for unplanned,"preventable" parentnhood has to be a lot higher than the cost of providing birth control.

And I have never begrudged anyone having all the sex they want - I'm pretty sure that on my deathbed I'm not going to wish I had less.

Looks like Chile is a country I can add to my list of "places to escape to when the Republicans turn this country into Gilead and I have to run away from my life as a handmaid."

Wow, cool. So you know that abortion is still illegal in Chile, right? And that its culture is staggeringly macho, and that domestic abuse is unbelievably rampant?

James, while I wish that 14 year olds were not engaging in sex, I'm much more concerned with the consequences of 14 year olds engagaing in sex without percautions.There are worse things in life than a sexually active 14 year old. Like 14 year olds having children and contracting AIDS.

And as far as spending money, I wish we were not spending billions of dollars treating smoking-related diseases,

obesity-related diseases, and the consequences of people who either cannot or will not care for the children they brought into this world. And don't even get me going that I pay to pay the bill for millions of Americans who are too stupid to realize that voting for a two-bit jock-sniffing Texas drunk is a baaaaaaad idea. We are throwing away billions of dollars every month in Iraq, and you're whining about chump change spent on preventing children from having children?

Hormonal birth control for the 18 and older group (which has been studied) is fine and makes sense.

I would rather see condoms, sex ed, and a public health campaign for the 14-18 year crowd than hormonal birth control pills and devices. We really don't know the effects of hormonally based birth control at such a young age. Would it impact development?

Without aggressive sex education, will the girls and their mothers even take advantage of it? Will fears drive them away? The Catholic Church has aggressively spread misinformation about birth control in Latin America. While educated girls and women know that, will the less educated? Will the ones in the ghettoes or the rural areas have any idea or willingness if it is not "marketed" to them?

Some health care workers are spreading the gospel of smaller families. With condoms, workers can slip women the foils unobtrusively. For birth control pills, they will need to go to a specific place, and risk public knowledge.

As for 15 year olds getting prescriptions without parental knowledge, I don't think that's good. If the child has a health issue, guess who will have to deal with it? Hormonal birth control pills are not recommended for certain populations. Do we really trust 14 year olds to manage this in their own interests? I don't want 14 year olds criminally tried as adults because of judgement issues; the flip side of that is I don't want them to become sexually active too early either because of judgement issues.

It's the 14-17 year olds I have qualms about, not the grown women. Grown women should have access to birth control because they are adults.