"The existing programs of family planning are imposing Western views on people who have a different view of life and very different desires for family size," [Steven Mosher] said. The approach taken by such groups as UNFPA and Planned Parenthood is "contraceptive imperialism," according to Mosher, "exporting the mentality of Manhattan ... or Hollywood to relatively innocent, untouched corners of the world."
If even the Walt Disney empire can be an imperialist tool, what about other things that reach into the deeper levels of a people's culture with a foreign concept?
[The Population Research Institute] has conducted surveys in such countries as Kenya, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Mexico and found in every case that "reproductive health" was lowest on women's list of health care priorities. "It's not what they want," said Mosher. "We're not responding to their pleas for help. ... They ask for clean drinking water, and we give them contraceptives."
He explained that women in the developing world are deemed "ipso facto [to] have a so-called unmet need for contraception" based on the simple fact that they had a baby in the last two years and are not currently sterilized or on contraception.
"In other words, they're not asking these women if they want contraceptives," he said. "They're assuming."
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2 comments:
unmet need for contraceptives...
How I hate that phrase. The RH bill advocates here sing the same boring tune. I agree with Mosher - they are just assuming. The poor need jobs, decent homes, genuine health care, education, and dignity. We're not giving it to them if we insist they have a high, unmet...oh shucks
You're absolutely right about that. Assumed need, contraception is. However, some wise fellas and those with less than... hmm, noble intentions don't assume. It's pretty much the same as what goes on in the sale and marketing of any product. If one wants to sell a product or service, even if it's not a real need, the way to go is to create a need. And that's done sometimes by inventing or exaggerating problems, the solution to which is the product or service being marketed.
The poor have real needs, and contraceptives are not part of these needs.
The youth have real needs -- real education, guidance in decision-making, goal-setting, encouragement in pursuing dreams, stable families. Some people just assume that the youth engaging in sexual activity is a "default setting." Or maybe, to sell more contraceptives, another "need" is being created yet again.
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