In 1968, “the right to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of one’s children and to have the information, education and means to do so” was added as a human right. Since its adoption, family planning efforts have littered the developing world, attempting to give women the resources to properly control their reproductive health. These efforts have not had the impact one would have hoped, but progress has been made.
Still today, 200 million women have an unmet need for contraceptives—they want to avoid pregnancy but do not have the ability to do so. This means that they either do not have the money to afford contraceptives or they are uneducated about them. An op-ed columnist, Nicholas D. Kristof commented on the results that have been gathered of this problem: “This “unmet need” results in 70 million to 80 million unwanted pregnancies annually, the United Nations says, along with 19 million abortions and 150,000 maternal deaths.” Moreover, these additional births (which predominately, though not exclusively, occur in the developing world) increase overpopulation, strap limited government resources, and lead to the continuation of poverty.
The money that has been spent on family planning has not in the past been extremely effective because of cultural differences that were strategically difficult and were not preempted. For instance, most of the developing world has large populations of people living in rural areas. These people do not have access to hospitals and often get their reproductive health through their local midwives. As such, women in rural villages have been neglected in the past by family planning programs. Secondly, programs have often distributed contraceptives without adequate education about the proper use of them or education about the side effects. Because of this, many women stop the contraceptives when complications arise that they did not expect. Also, they might take it improperly, deduce that it doesn’t work, and never try it, or other methods, again. Finally, too often family planning programs have had a western agenda. They have aimed at intimidating women into choosing smaller families instead of educating them about their options and offering them the ability to choose. As many developing cultures value large families, this can be extremely problematic. Once women feel that they are misunderstood, they stop trusting the family planning experts and continue with their normal patterns.
This issue is one about which I feel very strongly. Not only as a woman do I find importance in the attempt to ensuring that woman has control over her own body, but I have additionally spent a great deal of time in the developing world working with women and have been able to see what a large issue this truly is. Just because family planning has not made the strides it should have in the last 30 years does not mean people should capitulate—these women in the developing world still need help and have not yet received it. In the end it is about learning from our mistakes and continuing to do our best to help the world in a responsible manner. Doing this, I am confident, requires a perseverance to important causes like this one.
I really recommend this article for anyone that is curious about what it might be like to live as a woman in the developing world: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/opinion/05kristof.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=pregnant%20again%20and%20poor&st=cse
No comments:
Post a Comment