Birth
control methods of all types find broad acceptance among the population.
This is true even of practicing Catholics, 81.3 percent of whom found
their use acceptable. National health programs have facilitated access
to birth control since the 1960s, and the use of contraceptives is
widespread. However, these programs provide easy access to birth control
only to women who have already had at least one child because the
programs are mainly organized to provide prenatal and postpartum primary
care. Birth control is therefore more difficult to obtain for childless
women, especially younger and poorer women. Thus first pregnancies out
of wedlock as well as first marriages of pregnant brides are frequent.
This differential in contraceptive practices is largely responsible for
the fact that the proportion of births out of wedlock over the total
number of births increased with the overall decline in the birth rate.
The number of births in wedlock has fallen almost by half since the
initiation of the contraception programs, while the births out of
wedlock have remained fairly constant. This means that currently a third
of all births are out of wedlock, up from 17.5 percent in 1965.
Premarital sex among couples in love with each other is also broadly
accepted, except among practicing Protestants, only 40 percent of whom
approved, and among those age fifty-five and older, only 39 percent of
whom approved. Sixty-three percent of practicing Catholics accepted this
practice, despite the strong disapproval of the church hierarchy. On
this issue, practicing Protestants again are closer to the Catholic
hierarchy's teachings than are lay Catholics themselves. The acceptance
of premarital relations compounds the problems caused by the relatively
more difficult access to birth control for childless women.
Data as of March 1994
Sources:
Entry from: "Chile: A Country Study" published by the Federal
Research Division of the Library of Congress.
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