Chile

• Female Leader Devises Smart Teen Birth-Control Plan. [Chicago Sun-Times] Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has been trying to find ways to make it easier for girls to avoid pregnancy in the first place. And what she has done in a socially conservative country -- that recently banned divorce, is staunchly Roman Catholic and will not allow abortions -- is miraculous. She is permitting local health centers to provide free emergency contraception (the morning-after pill known as Plan B) and other forms of birth control to girls as young as 14 who need it -- even without the consent of their parents. Previously, the morning-after pill had only been available to adult women who had been raped. Surveys have found that 40% of the teenagers in Chile over 15 do not use any form of contraception because it is so expensive and so difficult to get. In Santiago, 22% of babies born are mothered by teens from the poorest neighborhoods. And, because abortion is illegal in Chile, 32,000 women seek treatment at hospitals each year due to botched illegal operations to terminate their pregnancies. "Hopefully," says Schakowsky, Bachelet's efforts "will help to solve the problem."

Nicaragua

• Nicaragua OKs Tough Abortion Bill Before Election. [Reuters] Nicaraguan lawmakers passed a bill on Thursday that bans abortions for rape victims and women who risk dying in childbirth in a tactical vote little more than a week before a tense presidential election. The measure was approved with the support of reluctant left-wing legislators who backed it to help their party's leader, Daniel Ortega, a former Cold War foe of the United States, sweep back to power in the November 5 election. Nicaragua's powerful Roman Catholic Church and the ruling Liberal Party promoted the bill and Ortega's Sandinista Party fell into line to avoid alienating church leaders and religious voters in the last days of a tight campaign. The new measure would put Nicaragua alongside nations like Chile and El Salvador in imposing a blanket ban.

• Nicaragua Outlaws All Abortion. [Ms. Magazine] The Nicaraguan legislature voted yesterday to outlaw all abortions, making it the third country in the Western Hemisphere to outlaw abortion without exception. The legislation was approved 52-0, with nine abstentions and 29 legislators not voting. The legislation must still be signed by Nicaraguan president Enrique Bolanos, who is strongly against abortion rights and favors increasing penalties for illegal abortions; without his veto, the ban will take effect in 30 days. Nicaragua currently allows abortion if a woman's life is in danger or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

• Women Will Fight Ban on Abortions. [Telegraph.co.uk] Women's rights groups in Nicaragua said yesterday they planned to file an injunction to stop a new law banning all abortions which they believe has been rushed through to win Catholic votes ahead of the presidential elections. Under the new law, abortions will no longer be permitted for rape victims or women who risk death during childbirth. Doctors and women who try to abort for any reason will face four to eight years in jail. "The only thing we can do now is try to delay this," said Mileet Mejia, of the Network of Women Against Violence, one of many women's rights organizations which protested against the new law when it was passed on Thursday. Members of the Left-wing Sandinista party which, in the past, has campaigned to legalize abortion, joined conservatives to approve a tightening of the abortion laws to prevent rape victims and women who risk dying in childbirth from terminating pregnancies

• Peru and Cuba Make Semis of Women's Volleyball International. [People's Daily Online, China] Peru and Cuba defeated the United States and hosts Mexico respectively to make the semifinals of the women's international volleyball tournament in Monterrey, Mexico on Wednesday. With the wins, both teams make the final four together with group leaders Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.