Empowering Women.

Recently, experts on the role of women in society met at a United Nations sponsored forum. Interviews with several of these women have been aired and published in print, and there is a common thread in all of them. It is simply this:
"The ability of women to control their own fertility is absolutely fundamental to women’s empowerment and equality. When a woman can plan her family, she can plan the rest of her life. When she is healthy, she can be more productive. And when her reproductive rights—including the right to decide the number, timing and spacing of her children, and to make decisions regarding reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence—are promoted and protected, she has freedom to participate more fully and equally in society." (1)
The lack of these rights leads to early death of women from health issues related to childbirth, large and poor families, a disregard for girl children and a growing number of young men with no chance for education or success.
You think this is a 3rd world problem, don’t you? Well it is, and, it is also a problem here in the good old US of A. Any culture that denies a woman the right to control her reproductive decisions fosters the same problems as seen in the 3rd world. And worse, in a free society where anyone is (within limits) free to express their opinion, groups that oppose the freedom of women attempt to make EVERYBODY in the society subject to their limited view of women.
The history of reproductive freedom is filled with examples of legislative attempts to limit access to birth control, sex education, reproductive services, pro-birth control counseling and other issues. So far they have all failed in favor of individual rights. The push for “Abstinence Only” sex education attempts to limit the rights of woman to control their fertility in a way THEY choose. Abstinence is a very good way to limit live births, but it is not the only oneby a long shot.
The last time I looked, this wasn’t Russia or Iran or China. This was America. I really hope the “was” in the last sentence doesn’t mean that this isn’t America any longer. Where freedom of choice is limited, the America I know and love is diminished. Remember the bumper sticker “America - Love it or Leave it”. Many folks claim to love it but want to change it to their restricted idea of what it should be. Maybe THEY should leave it, and try to get their ideas implemented in, say, Saudi Arabia. And, they could get cheap gas.

Bye Bye.

1. http://www.unfpa.org/gender/empowerment.htm
Image: http://www.cherieblair.org/women/I%20am%20powerful.jpg