The Chilean bishops' conference last week issued a 12-page document, "In defence of life and the family", which criticised the Government's birth control policies, and particularly the assertion that the morning-after pill is not a form of abortion, writes Colin Harding.

Health Minister María Soledad Barría planned to send draft legislation setting out her detailed proposals on the regulation of fertility to Congress this week, despite protests from members of the right-wing opposition.

In a foreword to the pamphlet, Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz, Archbishop of Santiago, called on "all people of good will" to study the Government's proposals and consider their implications for Chilean society. Chile has traditionally been one of Latin America's most conservative countries, but it has been changing rapidly recently, symbolised by the election of a divorced woman, Michelle Bachelet, as President last year.

Ms Barría insists that her decision to allow free distribution of the emergency contraceptive pill, along with other forms of birth control, is based on the best scientific evidence, which suggests that it is both legal under Chilean legislation and does not conflict with the Church's teaching on abortion. She argues that the pill is the most effective way of tackling the explosive increase in teenage pregnancies in Chile.