In an address with potentially far-reaching health care consequences, Melinda Gates today called upon governments to set as goals universal access to birth control for women who want it. She said the measure could save hundreds of thousands of lives each year.
"A Catholic, Gates is a co-chair and trustee of the Melinda and Bill Gates
Foundation, which distributes billions of dollars annually in the developing
world to raise agricultural productivity, health care and education levels while
it works to eradicate global diseases.
Speaking before a TEDxChange audience in Berlin, Gates stressed her Catholic identity and values, saying they have shaped her career at the Gates foundation, adding that it has been her Catholic education that led her to question her church’s official teaching that artificial birth control is sinful.
She said each year some 100,000 women who don’t want to be pregnant die in childbirth and some 600,000 women who don’t want to be pregnant give birth to infants who die in their first month of life.
She said the use of contraceptives is a broadly accepted idea, adding that couples use them because they want the power to plan their own lives and to raise healthier, better-educated, and more prosperous families.
“But for an idea that is broadly accepted in private, birth control generates a lot of opposition in public,” she said.
“Some people think contraceptives are code for abortion, which they’re not. Some people are uncomfortable because contraceptives have to do with sex. Some people worry that the real goal is to control populations. All these side issues have attached themselves to the core idea that men and women should be able to decide when to have a child. As a result, birth control has almost disappeared from the global health agenda.”
She wants to change this, adding the consequences of this disappearance has led to much suffering and death. The greatest victims, she said, have been in sub-Saharan Africa and the poorest parts of South Asia which contraceptives are frequently unavailable.
Gates contrasted modern contraceptive use in countries such as Germany where the proportion of people currently using modern devices is 66 percent (Thailand, 64 percent; El Salvador, 66 percent) with Nigeria, 10 percent (Chad, 2 percent; Uttar Pradesh, the biggest state in India, 29 percent).
Gates insisted that her call for a wider distribution of contraceptives has nothing to do with abortion or population control.
“We are talking about giving women the power to save their own lives and their children’s lives — and to give their families the best possible future...”
Speaking before a TEDxChange audience in Berlin, Gates stressed her Catholic identity and values, saying they have shaped her career at the Gates foundation, adding that it has been her Catholic education that led her to question her church’s official teaching that artificial birth control is sinful.
She said each year some 100,000 women who don’t want to be pregnant die in childbirth and some 600,000 women who don’t want to be pregnant give birth to infants who die in their first month of life.
She said the use of contraceptives is a broadly accepted idea, adding that couples use them because they want the power to plan their own lives and to raise healthier, better-educated, and more prosperous families.
“But for an idea that is broadly accepted in private, birth control generates a lot of opposition in public,” she said.
“Some people think contraceptives are code for abortion, which they’re not. Some people are uncomfortable because contraceptives have to do with sex. Some people worry that the real goal is to control populations. All these side issues have attached themselves to the core idea that men and women should be able to decide when to have a child. As a result, birth control has almost disappeared from the global health agenda.”
She wants to change this, adding the consequences of this disappearance has led to much suffering and death. The greatest victims, she said, have been in sub-Saharan Africa and the poorest parts of South Asia which contraceptives are frequently unavailable.
Gates contrasted modern contraceptive use in countries such as Germany where the proportion of people currently using modern devices is 66 percent (Thailand, 64 percent; El Salvador, 66 percent) with Nigeria, 10 percent (Chad, 2 percent; Uttar Pradesh, the biggest state in India, 29 percent).
Gates insisted that her call for a wider distribution of contraceptives has nothing to do with abortion or population control.
“We are talking about giving women the power to save their own lives and their children’s lives — and to give their families the best possible future...”
Links:
http://ncronline.org/users/thomas-c-fox
Bridget Mary's Reflection:
Three cheers for Melinda Gates for speaking out to save women and children's lives. The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests are in solidarity with giving women the power to make decisions of conscience about contraception.
http://ncronline.org/users/thomas-c-fox
Bridget Mary's Reflection:
Three cheers for Melinda Gates for speaking out to save women and children's lives. The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests are in solidarity with giving women the power to make decisions of conscience about contraception.
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