This is in response to a post on Capitalism Institute,
Here's the original post,
"Birth control isn't a right. Having sex whenever you want isn't a right. Putting a gun to a rich stranger's head so you can force him to give you money to buy birth control to have sex with another man also isn't a right.
If you can't afford to buy some birth control, you have no business risking a pregnancy. And you definitely have no business forcing me to pay for it all. Abstinence is free.
That I have to write this out is sad. That the man occupying the White House doesn't agree with me is just pathetic."
Ref.https://www.facebook.com/CapitalismInstitute/posts/412291775492631
My response,
I agree that forcing others to pay for someone else's birth control isn't fair. I hope and wish this is made clear that efforts to assist birth control is not restricted to this Nation alone, there is a very urgent need all around the Globe to ensure that both men and women have access to these.
I know it's not possible for any of us to argue with the rest of the world or reason with them as to why they should abstain or shouldn't concern themselves with reproduction.
The big problem is even the most impoverished person in the poorest countries of the world seems to have needs and is also managing to reproduce to a certain extent.
What comes after a child is born is even harder for any form of welfare to manage. Please make an effort to understand why birth control is both beneficial and fundamentally essential.
A video message all the way from down under,
Ref. http://www.engagemedia.org/Members/pc/videos/clinic-22aug09_transcoded.mpg/view
Cottingham et al. (2012) writing in The Lancet put forth seven measures required by the human rights standards of international law for governments to eliminate unmet need for family planning and achieve universal access to contraceptive information and services:
Governments have a formal legal obligation to do all they reasonably can to put these measures in place as a matter of urgent priority, and failing to do so without a compelling reason places them in breach of binding international treaty obligations pertaining to health and human rights.
A video message all the way from down under,
Ref. http://www.engagemedia.org/Members/pc/videos/clinic-22aug09_transcoded.mpg/view
Cottingham et al. (2012) writing in The Lancet put forth seven measures required by the human rights standards of international law for governments to eliminate unmet need for family planning and achieve universal access to contraceptive information and services:
Governments have a formal legal obligation to do all they reasonably can to put these measures in place as a matter of urgent priority, and failing to do so without a compelling reason places them in breach of binding international treaty obligations pertaining to health and human rights.
Cottingham et al. recommend that governments, NGOs, health-care providers and citizen advocates act to compel enforcement of these obligations to secure the existence and support of effective and inclusive birth control policies, improve the quality of reproductive health services, and achieve universal access to reproductive health including family planning. Guidance and assistance are available to help meet these obligations.
For example, a World Health Organization publication can help identify inconsistencies between national laws and international human rights obligations (e.g., denying unmarried women contraceptive services.) http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/88/7/09-063412.pdf
WHO staff can assist with removal of such barriers to access to and the provision of high quality sexual and reproductive health services, which can help meet the considerable remaining need for family planning.
Sincerely,
Jai Krishna Ponnappan