BIRTH CONTROL
Abortion rate rocks Chile
SANTIAGO, Chile—(UPI)—A criminal abortion rate of one out of every three pregnancies has shocked the Chilean government into launching what amounts to a birth control program in this nominally Roman Catholic nation.
There has been no protest from the liberal, Chilean church hierarchy. Two prominent Jesuits, experts in population studies, have publicly endorsed the government decision.
The National Health Service will make birth control information and devices available to requesting couples, free, as part of the mother-childcare program in all of the service's clinics.
The government decision, as far as is known, provoked no debate within the reformist Christian Democrat party of President Eduardo Frei, who has seven children of his own.
It has been suggested that conscientious Catholic party members consider the government action as a move against abortion rather than as a birth control program.
Dr. Francisco Mardones, the soft-spoken and efficient director of the National Health Service, a veteran Christian Democrat and the 10th of 16 brothers and sisters, stated the official view:
"My job is to serve the people, not to attempt to impose Catholicism.
"Our concern is to reduce abortion to protect the health of the mother and the children. When a mother dies of abortion complications it generally means the destruction of a family and abandoned children."
A strictly medical argument for birth control was cited by Dr. Mardones: last year 50,000 women were treated for abortion complications in government hospitals at
a cost of one million dollars to the tax-payers.
They tied up 20 per cent of the bed space in maternity wards, and their need for attention naturally aggravated Chile's doctor shortage.
The clinics will make available information on all methods of birth control, including the rhythm system. The couples will select that which they deem most expedient. A pilot program in Chile has achieved excellent results with oral pills, less than two accidental pregnancies per 100 control women per year, according to a preliminary study.
Father Hernan Larrain is editor of the Jesuit magazine Mensaje (message). He is a sociologist and has studied Chile's demography for many years. The priest had this to say at a recent birth control seminar:
"It is said that 95 per cent of Chileans are Roman Catholics. Nonetheless the 130,000 abortions per year demonstrate that the norms of the church in this respect are not followed . . . Only certain families of exceptional formation comply. I can only say that doctrine holds that the government is correct in its determination not to identify with any creed. Governments should work for the common good, and the statistics scream the people's desperate demand to solve these problems. For Catholics there is liberty to follow conscience. The government policy has been established impartially, from a position of medical ethics."
Even more outspoken was Father Roger Veckemanns, a controversial Belgian Jesuit, director of the Santiago-based Latin American Economic and Social Development Center (DESAL). DESAL is an expert-studded research institute financed by several private foundations. It has a sub-department, Latin American Population Center (CELAP), which is in the vanguard of birth control research in Latin America.
Father Veckemanns, like many development experts, is convinced that the birth rate must be checked if the underdeveloped countries are to make their economic breakthrough.
The only organized resistance to the government's decision to make contraceptive aid available to requesting couples has come from the Communist and Marxist Socialists. Between them they comprise 25 per cent of the voters.
Famed Architect to visit Oread
Paul Rudolph, internationally known architect, will speak in the Kansas Union Tuesday as a guest lecturer of the Department of Architecture and the Kansas City Chapter of American Institute of Architects.
Rudolph, former chairman of the Yale School of Architecture, is known for his widely publicized buildings with their "new freedom" in design. His designs include the planned Boston Government College, Colgate University Art Center, Yale's School of Art and Architecture, and many homes.
Daily Kansan Thursday, March 10, 1966
4
The Best Receipt In Town
is your cancelled D.C. check from the Douglas County State Bank.
Besides being the best receipt your Douglas County D.C. checks are a fast and easy way to pay all of your bills.
Come in today and make arrangements for your D.C. checking account.
DOUGLAS COUNTY STATE BANK
9TH & KENTUCKY
Lawrence's Convenience Bank
FRIDAY
The Miraculous
MOJO MEN
SATURDAY
THE MODS
They're Back By Your Demand COME EARLY. NO SEATS RESERVED.
Pizza Favorite Beverage Dancing THE EXCITING NEW CLUB OF LAWRENCE
PIZZA PUB
23rd & Naismith
VI 3-0611
The Gaslight Annual St. Pat's Day BLAST!
Green
Beer in Green Glasses
Pitchers 65c
March 17
11-12A.M.
4-5 P.M.
EVERYONE WELCOME!