As we get closer to the London Summit on Family Planning, people often ask me, "Why is family planning so important to you?" The simple answer is that it can mean everything to so many of the women and families I meet. It means the difference between being empowered and feeling powerless. It means the difference between celebrating a daughter's graduation and watching her drop out of school. It even means the difference between life and death.
Providing family planning information and services to millions of women and girls in the poorest countries in the world gives them the opportunity to determine their own futures, and the best future for their children.
As a woman and a mother, I can't imagine anything more important.
The women and girls I speak with, whether in India or Kenya, tell me they want to be able to plan for their families. They tell me they want what's best for themselves and their children. They want the right to participate freely and equally in society.
I'd love for you to watch this video and let me know what you think. And the next time someone asks you, "What does family planning mean?" hopefully you'll have no problem answering, "It can make all the difference for women and girls everywhere."
Do you believe every girl and woman should have the opportunity to determine her own future? Spread the word that contraception is not controversial. Take the pledge, share your own story, and ask your online communities to do the same!
This post was originally published on Impatient Optimists, the blog of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Follow Melinda Gates on Twitter: www.twitter.com/melindagates
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Natalie Thomas: When Is the Right Time to Have Children?
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Dr. Gary L. Darmstadt: Family Planning: Reaching for the Summit
A bit selfish, don't you think?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ni/2009/03/aids_expert_who_defended_the_p.html
What happens instead is that the introduction of condoms cause people to engage in riskier sex more frequently. That change in behavior combined with the inevitable inconsistent condom use makes the situation worse, not better.
I can't help but think of the US. We have been pushing condom use in the US for several decades, and condoms are widely available and easily obtained. Yet, we still have widespread STD's and teenage pregnancy, as well as more than 1 million abortions a year (more than half of which are women who were on contraception at the time they got pregnant).
That was not supposed to happen. Yet, it makes sense, in light of Dr. Green's research. The introduction of the condom mentality resulted in riskier behavior (widespread promiscuous extramarital sex, "hooking up", "friends with benefits, etc). That change in behavior combined with the inevitable inconsistent condom use has led to all those unexpected problems.
Which ironically, is exactly what Pope Paul VI predicted would happen in his prophetic encyclical, Humanae Vitae (can be read here: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html ).
He comments were based on empirical data, not scientific data, making the fact that it was observed in regards to HIV prevention not family planning that much more pertinent.
Family planning entails more than handing out condoms.
But thanks for playing. We have some lovely parting gifts for you.
In the big scheme of things, contraceptive use does not reduce unintended pregnancies, but it does increase promiscuous, extra-marital sex:
http://www.1flesh.org/argument_page/artificial-contraception-reduce-unplanned-pregnancies/
http://www.lifenews.com/2012/07/09/hey-melinda-gates-poor-need-food-not-contraception/
those who would defeat, repeal or oppose affordable healthcare. Where Is The
Controversy In Making Affordable Healthcare Accessible? What exactly is the
argument of the opposition, and where is the humanity in their argument?
Why is it that when the media publishes information that's so outrageous do people never investigate!
There is a massive body of evidence that directly ties access to family planning to a decrease in poverty.
Democrats and Liberals bank on the gullibility of minorities but what with the internet and more educated people even the "lock-step" media can't convince many of the party line anymore for people are beginning to think for themselves.
And a fertilized egg is automatically a full-fledged person with more rights than anyone else in a twenty-five mile radius, by divine _fatwa_ from the Infallible Temple of Absolute Truth.
Poverty and lack of education are the most important issues in nations with high TFRs. Contraception alone does nothing. In Bangladesh, for example, the TFR was unchanged even as rates of contraceptive use increased. In other nations high TFRs are a form of security as more children can provide for their parents when they are older. As economic security increases, TFRs decrease (it is either a J-shaped curve or inversely proportional to HDI depending on whose research you favor).
Then there are cultural factors. Those barriers are hard to break down. Some cultures view large families as being good and any type of birth control as being wrong.
The average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) through her lifetime, and she were to survive from birth through the end of her reproductive life.
Medical advancements have already caused major problems regarding social services and economic needs. More people are living, and those people are living longer. That makes the cost of caring for them much more expensive. Someone needs to bear these costs.
Very funny and in keeping with what you just said.
Would affordable, convenient, reliable birth control have anything to do with it?