There has been a lot of talk around the country recently about what qualifies as a right. Obviously, no one is debating the Bill of Rights, but politicians have questioned whether the American people are actually entitled to entitlement programs like welfare and healthcare.
So when the United Nations Population Fund in its annual report last week referred to contraception as a fundamental human right, it got me thinking — how can the United States share these problems with developing countries?
The U.N. report was mostly referring to the lack of availability of contraception in developing countries, and how making it available and destigmatizing it could help stop the disenfranchisement of women.
The theory is that family planning allows women to continue their education and careers, which in turn helps them to escape the cycle of poverty and oppression.
We have much the same problem in the United States. For all the progress we have made in the last century, women are still at a disadvantage in many aspects of professional life.
Women make about 81 cents on the dollar compared to men in America, based on a variety of factors including experience, occupation and discrimination. Experts say between 5 and 7 percent of the wage difference can’t be explained by other factors, and is probably based on discrimination.
Safe and easily available contraception allows women to decide when they want to start a family and when they want to focus on their career or education.
The U.N. report says more than 200 million women in developing countries do not have access to safe, reliable birth control.
But America is not a developing country. We are one of the original first-world countries, and it’s embarrassing that we still make such a big deal out of contraception.
The simple fact is we are not where we need to be when it comes to gender equality, and that is largely due to puritanical attitudes toward sexuality and gender roles.
Much of the controversy arises from the fact that people whose religious beliefs prevent them from using contraception do not want to pay for others’ contraception.
But the fact is religious beliefs cannot be allowed to dictate public policy in an advanced society, especially when it detracts from individual freedom.
No one complains about cheap condoms sold at gas stations, but when it comes to simple, daily regimens of birth control pills, apparently a line has been crossed.
I’m not comparing our first-world problems to oppression in developing countries, but we have some significant issues that can be solved by widespread and accepted use of and education about contraception.
Teen pregnancy is a serious issue in the United States and especially in Louisiana, where we rank sixth in the nation for teen birth rate with nearly 48 births per 1,000 teen girls.
Part of the problem is our abstinence-only education program, which essentially plugs its ears at contraception and shouts, “I’m not listening.” By ignoring safe, healthy options for contraception, we are teaching young people their options are abstinence or pregnancy. And who’s going to pick abstinence?
Contraception is a human right — one of the modern, complicated ones the Founding Fathers would never have considered. The U.N. is most concerned with birth control in developing countries, but its report highlights the problems we have in this country.
