Page 10
Commentary
Street Roots » July 27-Aug. 2, 2018
A basket o f
condoms are passed
around during
International
Women's Day in
Manila. Without
publicly funded
family planning
services or
information, we can
only expect to see
higher rates o f
unintended
pregnancies, unsafe
abortions and
infant mortality in
the US.
P H O T O B Y K A R A S A N T O S /IP S
Family planning is a basic human right
B Y T H A R A N G A Y A K U P IT IY A G E
genital lacerations.
C O N T R IB U T I N G W R IT E R
While such practices havegenerally
decreased, countries like Yemen where
conflict has restricted access to family
planning are seeing more women using unsafe
and unreliable traditional methods of
contraception.
In other places such as the United States,
family planning is deliberately under attack.
Just a year after implementing the global
gag rule, which cuts off international family
planning funds to any foreign nongovernmental
organization that advocates or even gives
information about abortion, the Trump
administration is now turning inward and
targeting its own.
Title X is a $300 million government
program dedicated to helping the 4 million
low-income women who wish to access birth
control and other family planning services
However, new proposed regulations echo a
sense of a “domestic gag rule” by restricting
people’s access to family planning care. One
such proposal forbids doctors from counseling
patients with unplanned pregnancies about
their reproductive options and instead
advocates coercing pregnant patients into
having children regardless of their own wishes.
The scenario can already be seen playing
out across the country.
Recently in California, the Supreme Court
reversed a law that required crisis pregnancy
centers, which often trick women into
believing they provide family planning.
services, to provide full disclosure.
The Supreme Court found that it “imposes
an unduly burdensome disclosure requirement
that will chill their protected speech.”
“It’s clear the U.S. government is taking
more and more swipes at a fundamental aspect
of the right to health - the right to
information,” said Human Rights Watch’s
Senior Researcher Amanda Klasing.
“Chipping away at women’s access to
t has been five decades since the
international community affirmed the right
to family planning, but many women still
remain unable to enjoy this right, which is '
increasingly under attack around the world.
For World Population Day, held annually on
July 11, the United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA) focused its attention on “Family
Planning is a Human Right,” and aptly so.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the
1968 International Conference on Human
Rights where family planning was, for the first
time, understood to be a human right.
“Parents have a basic human right to
determine freely and responsibly the number
and spacing of their children,” the Tehran
Proclamation from the conference states.
The historic meeting also linked the right to
the “dignity and worth of the human person.”
“Family planning is not only a matter of
human rights; it is also central to women’s
empowerment, reducing poverty and achieving
sustainable development,” said UNFPA’s
Executive Director Natalia Kanem.
However, in developing countries, more
than 200 million women still lack safe and
effective family planning methods largely
because of the lack of information or services.
The World Health Organization recently
found that clinical guidelines are followed in
less than 50 percent of cases in poorer
nations, resulting in “deficient” family
planning.
In such circumstances and without access
to contraception, women and girls often turn
to dangerous methods such as ingesting or .
inserting vinegar, which can cause bodily
damage.
UNFPA found that in one country, the stiff
plastic wrapper of a Popsicle is used as a
replacement for condoms which could result in
I
information is a direct attack on ¿heir access
tohealth ra re ,a n d th e righttom ake inform ed
autonomous decisions about their lives and
their bodies,” she said.
Withholding such essential resources and
information from women also heightens the
risk of ill-health or even death for newborns.
According to the Guttmacher Institute,
women with unintended pregnancies, which
occurs at a higher rate among the poor, often
receive worse prenatal care and poor birth
outcomes. When women are able to decide
when to have children and space out their
pregnancies, their children are less likely to be
born prematurely or have low birth weights.
Already, a study found that U.S. babies are
three times more likely to die compared to 19
countries in the Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development largely because
of high poverty rates and a weak social safety
net.
Without publicly funded family planning
services or information, we can only expect to
see higher rates of unintended pregnancies,
unsafe abortions and infant mortality in the
U.S.
And now with Trump’s Supreme Court
nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who has a history
of undermining women’s reproductive
freedom, we may even see worse including the
dismantling of the historic Roe vs. Wade
decision, which legalized abortions.
If we are to achieve the Sustainable
Development Goals, including ensuring
universal access to sexual and réproductive
health care and meeting all family planning
needs, the international community should not
forget its affirmation at the 1968 International
Conference on Human Rights.
“Investments in family planning today are
investments in the health and well-being of
women for generations to come,” Kanem said.
Courtesy o f Inter Press Service / INSP.ngo