The Chilean Ministry of Health, in the government headed by President Michelle Bachelet, now mandates that public health clinics provide free birth control, including emergency contraception, to women over 14.

Betzie Jaramilo writes on teenage girls and pregnancy; On the other side, this dude Chalo (and I'm picking on him randomly, believe me he's not alone in an array of guys blogging about this) puts forth an opposing view that Bachelet's government "dehumanizes sex". It's like opposite day! Because we all know that denying girls and women the ability to choose what happens with their own bodies is so very humanizing. Groups like the Moimiento Feminista Lilith Lilith Feminist Movement

and women like Monica are rallying and blogging in celebration.

J. from Land Without Bread weighs in with a humorous observation that conservative wingnuts in the U.S. can learn from Chile's archbishop of Santiago, who says that birth control is unpatriotic...

And América blogs her own personal story from over 40 years ago, of her affair with an older man, of birth control, children, and abortion. She outlines some of the issues of "la píldora" - the Church is against it and priests talk of fornication and consequences and the end of the world; anti-government groups argue cynically that the government just wants to get rid of stockpiles of the morning-after pill; the government and its defenders say that teenage pregnancy is a huge social problem. America's story is of sadness that she chose abortion.

Don Chere complains that free pills should not be the first line of action; that sex ed for children, and more education about condoms, would be better.

Meanwhile controversy continues over the March of the Penguins - the name for recent political demonstrations in Chile. Hundreds of thousands of students have been rallying and protesting in Chile, over the cost and quality of education. (Students are called "penguins" because of their black and white uniforms.) President Bachelet now includes six high school students on her political advisory committee.