Volumne 5 No. 2
The real cost of withholding contraceptive aid in poor countries - nothing cheap about it
The October
11, 2001, issue of The Economist made the point that for want of inexpensive
contraceptives, millions of lives are lost each year in developing countries.
I n the developing world, contraceptives would save
lives if they were distributed to those who need them.
According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA),
roughly 350 million couples lack access to a full range of modern
contraceptives, and millions more lack even the most rudimentary knowledge
about contraception. As a result, as many as 100 million unwanted pregnancies
occur annually. One-fifth of these pregnancies end in unsafe abortions
- killing more than 500,000 women a year.
According to Tracy Clarke, of the International Planned
Parenthood Federation, distributing contraceptives to developing countries
takes a lot of money.While the contraceptives themselves are cheap,
aid agencies need lots of them, and donor countries have been cutting
their budgets.
Greater political support is also needed. Governments
of poor countries need to start thinking about contraception as essential
to public health. Efforts to provide money and manpower must be channeled
to continuously supply contraceptives within the countries. Eliminating
obstacles - such as heavy taxes on imported contraceptives - would go
far toward reaching this goal. The situation would improve even more
if the US government withdrew its ban on financing groups that offer
abortion, a move that severely hinders family-planning organizations
offering termination as well as contraception.
Providing traditional contraceptives has not yet come
to the fore in the disputes about medicine and the developing world.
It's a discussion that needs to take place. The number of lives affected
by these simple and inexpensive contraceptive aids is staggering.