Melinda Gates: Give women the power to determine their future
Editor's note: Melinda Gates is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
By Melinda Gates, Special to CNN
(CNN) - The vast majority of women in the United States use birth control. Some of us may even consider it a minor annoyance. Sometimes we forget to take our pills. The side effects can be painful. But we put up with it because it's so important to have the power to determine our future.
I didn't fully appreciate how much contraceptives changed my life because I never lacked access to them.
That is, I didn't fully appreciate them until I got involved in global health and learned that hundreds of millions of women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia don't have access to contraceptives. The lack of birth control is more than a minor annoyance. It can be a significant barrier to a better life. When I learned what many women in poor countries faced, I asked myself: What would my life have been like if I hadn't been able to use birth control?
This week at the London Summit on Family Planning, a partnership of national governments from developing and developed countries, foundations, the private sector and NGOs is launching a groundbreaking effort to make sure no woman has to ask herself that question. Our goal is to make modern contraceptives and family planning information and services available to an additional 120 million women and girls in the world's poorest countries over the next eight years.
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CORRECTION: What Mrs. Gates and many others fail to understand is that millions of people withholding their support for projects like this oppose the abortive murder of innocent babies and would really have no problem with birth control methods that are not abortifacients (as many are).
So, they would realize much more support if they simply drop the abortion component.
Here's why: Since many of us believe that Life begins at conception, any birth control method that PREVENTS conception would be supported by most pro-life people, and, conversely, any method that kills a fertilized egg (abortion) would not be supported.
Therefore, separating these into two totally separate ventures would accomplish much more than trying to deceptively disguise the abortion component (Family Planning Services) by making statements like, "Our goal is to make modern contraceptives and FAMILY PLANNING information and SERVICES available" (emphasis mine).
Unfortunatly, the belief that life starts at conception, is just a belief. Until there is a brain, there is no thought, thus no life. Scientific fact trumps religious belief. This is not the dark ages, religious opinion has no place in policy making
What Mrs. Gates and many others fail to understand is that millions of people withholding their support for projects like this pretend that the majority that oppose the abortive murder of innocent babies would really have no problem with birth control methods that are not abortifacients. So, they would realize much more support if they simply drop the abortion component.
Here's why: Since many of us believe that Life begins at conception, any birth control method that prevents conception would be supported by most pro-life people, and, conversely, any method that kills a fertilized egg (abortion) would not be supported.
Therefore, separating these into two totally separate ventures would accomplish much more than trying to deceptively disguise the abortion component by making statements like, "Our goal is to make modern contraceptives and FAMILY PLANNING information and SERVICES available" (emphasis mine).
DID BILL NAD MALINDA GATES FINALLY WAKE UP? the donate billions to feed a vacinate 3rd world people and that only makes the problem of overpopulation much worse. some of these people have 10-20 children to a family and cannot afford to ANY of them. contraception and birth control is the only answer to our survival as a race. the worlds population stands around 8 billion. that number should be cut to around 500,000,000. if we don't do it nature will find a way as it does when any animal population gets out of control.