When it comes to all of these international meetings of powerful heads of State such as the recent G8 Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, one issue in particular seems to be always left out or rarely acknowledged. Access to reproductive health care in relation to poverty, is an issue these very influential leaders apparently pay little or no attention to at all when it comes to these highly publicized gatherings. I suppose because it mostly effects women and girls it’s “unimportant” or too inconvenient to discuss.<\/p>\n
Via Planned Parenthood<\/strong><\/a>…<\/p>\n […]One issue is missing, though, and it’s not being talked about by Brad Pitt or Bono, let alone President Bush or Great Britain’s Prime Minister Blair: access to reproductive health care.<\/p>\n Access to reproductive health care can be scarce in the developing world<\/strong>, <\/a>and without it women, in particular, are trapped in poverty.<\/p>\n They cannot avoid unintended pregnancies, which keep them out of the work force, create more mouths to feed, and present constant physical risks to their health.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n And without access to reproductive health care, women cannot protect themselves from HIV\/AIDS. Once infected, they can rarely afford anti-retroviral medication, so not only do they usually die, but they often leave their children orphaned, meaning their oldest daughters must then take over raising the remaining children.<\/p>\n Governments around the world must prioritize reproductive health care as a means of poverty reduction. The United States should be in the lead on this, but unfortunately our government is far from a leader.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That’s for damn sure.<\/p>\n While on the domestic front our government is cutting Medicaid, restricting access to abortion, and pushing abstinence-only sex education, on the global front it is cutting international family planning funding<\/strong><\/a>, restricting access to abortion overseas<\/strong><\/a>, and pushing medically unsound abstinence-only sex education<\/strong><\/a> as a way of preventing HIV\/AIDS around the world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And we can thank Dubya’s good ole Global Gag Rule<\/strong><\/a> for this. I’m also aware that the knee-jerk and very ignorant response to the dilemma of women in Developing Nations who keep having repeated unintentional pregnancies after another and being infected with HIV, is to ‘stop having sex.’ However in these countries, women can be raped into submission by their husbands or other men who feel entitled to penetrating their bodies. And this is usually either legal or not acknowledged, or dealt with (if so, then rarely) by ruling governments these countries.<\/p>\n Poverty can be crippling, but it can also be overcome. Access to family planning and reproductive health can help women and families everywhere escape poverty and better their lives.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n No, world leaders can’t help women in this particular sphere. Helping women and ensuring and promoting their reproductive rights is considered to be a “special interest<\/em>” issue, and so<\/em> unimportant. Lest we forget, it’s simply too “emasculating<\/em>” for our heads of State here and around the world to do this anyway. Besides, if you want to keep your country’s womenfolk<\/em> from getting too uppity, just deny them their reproductive rights and make them even more<\/strong> vulnerable to poverty. And though it may seem this serious lack of reproductive rights and health care only takes place in Developing Nations such as within Africa, under this administration’s politics and Congress, our nation is *slowly* but beginning to emulate the very same extremist anti-reproductive-rights\/health-care policies we see in the Developing World. If Roe<\/em> is overturned, Griswold<\/em><\/strong><\/a> will be next, and Bush’s Global Gag Rule reigns even at here. American women and girls are not immune from this. However, no<\/strong> woman or girl, regardless of what nation they hail from, should suffer under a government that has contempt for their sex having control over their reproductive destinies and choices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When it comes to all of these international meetings of powerful heads of State such as the recent G8 Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, one issue in particular seems to be always left out or rarely acknowledged. Access to reproductive health … Continue reading