Background:

Emergency contraception refers to contraceptive methods that can be used after a sexual intercourse Aim: To analyze the evolution of emergency contraception (EC) consultations on the Chilean public health system, at a communal level, in relation to the legal changes that recently took place, aimed to ease the delivery of the benefit. To analyze its association with socioeconomic, demographic and municipal healthcare system characteristics.

Material and Methods:

We analyzed data bases of the Ministry of Health to study EC consultation rates on Chilean communes, including consultations on emergency departments and by rape, from 2008 to 2013. We evaluated the association with communal characteristics, obtained from the National Municipal Information System.

Results:

Both the communal consultation rates and percentage of communes with consultations increased progressively during the period, with an explosive increase between 2009 and 2010. We observed a high dispersion in EC consultations both at a communal and regional level. There was an inverse significant association of the number of consultations with the communal poverty rate.

Conclusions:

Our results reveal the impact of legal modifications implemented in Chile since 2009 on the communal EC consultation rates. On other hand, our results reveal that although these modifications were oriented to favor the delivery of this benefit, a high dispersion subsists, associated with population’s socioeconomic factors, mainly, the communal poverty level.