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PHI 2600-39832
Prof. Mallory
December 4, 2012
Importance of Birth Control As almost everyone knows, women around the world have lower standards of living than men. The reason: Women bear children, and therefore usually bear the financial burden of raising them. Caring for children leaves women in every nation with fewer opportunities for education, careers, and personal fulfillment. Unplanned pregnancies also lead to social problems – including child abuse, prostitution, and abortion - that affect all of us. How can women protect themselves from these social and economic ills, and protect their children and all society from the consequences of unplanned pregnancies and mid pregnancy abortion? By controlling how many children they bear, and when. Women all over the world should have access to birth control to secure their future, protect their children and help societies prosper throughout the world. The first reason women should use birth control is to safeguard their own ambitions, mental health, and very lives. Using birth control allows women to finish their educations and become established in their careers before having children, thus better preparing them to provide for themselves and their families. Contraception also protects women from the unplanned pregnancies that occur due to rape, incest or other coerced sexual activity. Erasing the fear of an unwanted pregnancy eases women’s minds, allowing them to achieve not only inner peace but personal fulfillment. Most importantly, birth control can save women’s lives around the world. According to the World Health Organization, one woman somewhere in he world dies every minute from complications of pregnancy or childbirth (“Maternal Health”). Why should women – both in the U.S. and in other nations – lose their lives because of a lack of control over their reproductive choices? Using birth control would help millions of women who are undernourished, sick or unable to access a medical care from dying from the effects of pregnancy and childbearing. It’s hard to argue that women are not better served by access to birth control. The second reason omen need easy access to contraception is to protect their children. This is especially true of children born to single mothers. According to the U.S. Department of Census, almost half of America’s children live in homes with only one parent, most often the mother. And of these children, the Bureau reports, nearly six in ten live below the poverty line (“Children”). If such women had access to birth control, they would not give birth to children they cannot afford to support. Thus giving women more control over their reproductive health would prevent millions of children from growing up in poverty. What’s more, the Census Bureau says, 7.6 million American Children live with never married, single mothers who are unemployed or receiving government assistance (“Children”). Poverty has long been recognized as a major factor in child delinquency, and living below the poverty line also correlates to high rates of arrest and detention: a major university study found that both single parenthood and poverty created “great risk” of juvenile delinquency (Dogget). If women had access to safe, inexpensive contraception, they could prevent their children from lives of deprivation and incarceration. The third and most important reason should demand access to birth control is that it helps societies prosper. As the Census Bureau reports, U.S. government spent $17.1 billion dollars in 2010 on Aid to Families with Dependent Children, a program that helps women feed their children (“Children”). With the economy in its current state, that is money that could be better spent elsewhere. What’s more, society spends billions more tax dollars on incarcerating criminals, many of whom – as stated previously – are created by a family environment of poverty brought on by single motherhood. And even if society were not suffering because of crime