Africa’s Birth-Control Woes
By Jesse Singal - Jul 16th, 2008 at 4:12 pmThe Economist has up an informative piece on population control. The gist: Decades after people realized that runaway population growth could have disastrous global consequences, “a mixture of technological innovation, economic dynamism and successful population-control strategies have helped defuse that bomb, or at least delay its detonation.” But–and this is a huge “but”–as access to family planning has spread and fertility rates have fallen in most of the world, some countries have found themselves utterly cut off from this trend. Unsurprisingly, of the 35 countries that are “lagging badly” in this department, 31 are in sub-Saharan Africa.
This chart from the article is rather sobering:
It’s particularly demoralizing when you put it in context: “One factor, says CARE’s Ms [Mona] Byrkit, is the social conservatism of the Bush administration, which makes it hard for those receiving American funding (for HIV/AIDS, for example) even to work with charities providing abortion counselling.”
So take a long look at the conspicuously long black bar at the top of the chart, and then think about the fact that we have a government that is actively impeding HIV/AIDS education. U.S. birth-control policy is indirectly responsible for many, many deaths.
“One factor, says CARE’s Ms [Mona] Byrkit, is the social conservatism of the Bush administration, which makes it hard for those receiving American funding (for HIV/AIDS, for example) even to work with charities providing abortion counselling.”
The Bush administration is THE factor. Literally the first order of Bush’s presidency was to reinstate a policy commonly known as the Global Gag Rule. This policy, originated during the Reagan years, dictated that U.S. funding for international family planning programs be granted to organizations only on the condition that the organization will not perform abortions, refer a patient to a place where an abortion can be obtained, or even discuss the option of abortion in counsel.
But this is about birth control, not abortion, you might say. In fact, abortion has everything to do with it. Comprehensive family planning by its very nature should encompass the entire realm of options open to women and couples. When organizations take this pledge in order to acquire desperately needed family planning funds, the quality of these services is greatly diminished. And if the organization chooses not to agree to the condition and thus forgo these funds, they are sometimes forced to cut back on basic services such as birth control and other contraceptives (like condoms), or even shutter their organization all together.
The Global Gag Rule is a major factor in developing nations’ struggle to provide birth control and other family planning services. The Bush administration, by attaching the GGR caveat to international family planning policy, is obstructing the very purpose family planning is intended to serve. Hopefully, the next U.S. president will repeal this obstructionist policy and implement a real and effective international family planning policy.
For more information on the Global Gag Rule, check out:
July 16th, 2008 at 8:40 pmhttp://www.globalgagrule.org/
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/issues-action/birth-control/global-gag-rule-21019.htm
http://popconnect.org/upload/gagrule.pdf