There’s a global movement waiting to happen.
Melinda Gates, wife of Bill Gates, was raised a Catholic and still considers herself to be a Catholic. And yet she uses contraception with no hesitation, along with 1 billion other people in the world. They want the power to plan their own lives and to raise healthier, better educated and more prosperous families. And shouldn’t everyone be free to decide whether they do or do not want to conceive a child?
Well – they’re not. Birth control has almost completely and totally disappeared from the Global Health Agenda – and as a result, 100,000 women every year die in childbirth who didn’t want to be pregnant.
Melinda’s mission to put birth control back on the agenda is fuelled by the desire to educate and inform people that they have a choice. Just watch. You have to:
 Melinda Gates speaks out about contraception on http://www.mamamia.com.au){kind=link}
Comments
47 Comments so far
Melinda Gates is awesome. Sadly, the Catholic church does not count her as one of their own since using contraception technically incurs automatic excommunication. Funnily enough the Catholic church doesn’t enforce this since 85% of Catholic women use birth control.
Whilst doing Catholic marriage prep (overseas) I was forced to produce three months of charting of my periods and cervical fluid to the priests off-sider to prove that I understand Catholic Family Planning, pre marriage. I was also forced to watch (with my fiancé) footage of aborted foetuses at different stages of development as part of the anti-abortion drive during the marriage planning weekend. At the time I was actually 14 weeks pregnant, so describing the footage as disturbing was a gigantic understatement. Likewise the irrelevance of charting my cervical fluid!!!
loading...
Anonymous I don’t disagree with you about how pharmaceutical companies, in our patriarchal society, are ever trying to control female bodily functions. I wish there were more tampering with mens for a change! But the World Health Organisation does not agree with the Catholic stance on condoms. And I find it quite ironic that a blatantly sexist organisation like the Catholic church is lecturing African peoples on their cultural beliefs about how to better treat women. How does your natural methods approach to contraception prevent pregnancies in women who are raped or abused? Is the Catholic church going to make a withdrawal from its beloved bank to help these women feed their children? I agree with you about the need for education but I definitely don’t think it is the job of a religious organisation to deliver it, especially when you say people should be able to make their own decisions which the Catholic church has never encouraged with its dependence on the early brain-washing of children. Education and religion should be a separate thing, women’s health and religion should be a separate thing. We are far too intellligent a race of people now to need guidance from an archaic institution like the Catholic church. If every woman in the world just studied gender and women’s studies, they would need no further insight into their true situation and would begin to live with their eyes open.
loading...
I mostly agree with you, except on your anti-male sentiment. Yes there are morons that are male, same goes for female. There are massive problems in the world, if the educated and intelligent work together they will solve some of them. If you split those people by introducing an issue that’s not especially related, then you’re going to get less people solving the important issues. Reducing the world’s population and allowing women and families to control how many kids they have, can be solved by people, it doesn’t have to be women that solve it and it isn’t men in a first world country that are to blame for it. There’s enough hatred in the world without hating men. Let’s all work together.
loading...
‘Concerned’ I think the Catholic church ought to stay out of it altogether! Who are they to tell women, men, families how to arrange themselves? Last I heard they were preaching abstinence, not condoms, to poor, young Africans. How many Aussie teens do you know would not want to have sex? The Catholic church is just such a dangerous organisation and causes so much damage. And I’m frankly tired of Catholics picking and choosing what doctrine they follow, you either do or don’t support your church. If you follow the Pope, you are Catholic and against contraception. It’s your money going in the plate so don’t tell me you’re not part of the problem. Catholics like yourselves should be putting their efforts into fighting for change within the church, get some modern thought into the Vatican and then really help Catholic women in third world countries like the Philippines feed their large families by ‘de-criminalising’ contraception.
loading...
Jash I am also tired of Catholics picking and choosing the doctrines they believe. Which is why I don’t pick, and choose all of them, including the church’s teaching on contraception. This was not an easy decision and took years of study and research. Contraception provides no benefits to women, you can use other methods to avoid pregnancy which are as effective as the pill and more effective then condoms without the harmful side effects. As an example women who us the pill before they breastfeed their first child are 8 times more likely to develop breast cancer. Research shows that condoms promotion is having no effect on the spread of HIV in African countries, were the vast majority of infection occurs through rape and abuse of women and inadequate access to medications to stop the spread from mother to child. This is due to the inflated prices of HIV medications by the pharmaceutical companies, the same companies that benefit from the use of contraception. I know many teenagers who are choosing not to have sex. Unfortunately in my day to day work I meet many more who are seriously damaged physically and psychologically by having sex too early and deeply regret this decision. We need to educate ppl with real facts so ppl can make their own decisions rather then telling women contraception will solve their problems. .
loading...
Please give the names of the studies that have proved the breast cancer link and the one that shows “other methods of contraception” being more effective than the pill and condoms.
Have you thought that promotion of condoms isn’t having as great an effect on HIV as hoped because men aren’t wearing them when they rape women?
The pill won’t be effective if women can’t afford to buy it, or aren’t able to take them as regularly as needed.
loading...
Melinda gates takes a very narrow western view of what she believes would benefit the third world. Women don’t need harmful medications to lead better healthier lives. What they need is knowledge of their fertility allowing them to plan their families in a way which respects women and their bodies. Everyone has a right to decide whether they wish to conceive, the first step is for the men to accept this and respect women enough to make these decisions. The implication that the Catholic Church does not allow people to make this decision is simply untrue. Church teaching explicitly states that couples need to carefully plan the size of their family. Natural fertility methods allow couples to do this without harming the woman by pumping her full of drugs, or encouraging the domination of women through the use of condoms (studies show increase awareness of condoms has led to higher rates of HIV rather then decreasing the rate in African countries). Natrual methods are also proving to be more successful then other methods such as ivf in allowing a couple to conceive. It’s time women stopped blindly believing the lies spun by pharmaceutical companies and took some ownership of their own fertility. When is the last time you read the side effects on your pill packet? And now Melinda wants to spread these lies to the third world.
loading...
I think we can be rational about this and say the advantages of contraception would undoubtedly outweigh the disadvantages in the case of the billion or so poorest people on the planet who currently have no choice. You can decide either way what you believe because you have the luxury to choose.
loading...
When religion and big pharma collide. The mega conspiracy.
loading...
Oh, please. Of course she has a western view of contraception, she’s been raised in the western world. Your own views are very narrowly western as evidenced by you thinking people that are starving or in war zones can carefully plan their family sizes.
Can you also provide references for your claim that condom “awareness” is responsible for a rise in HIV? BTW, condom awareness is somewhat different to condom use.
loading...
‘Natrual (sic) methods are also proving to be more successful then (sic) other methods such as ivf in allowing a couple to conceive’. Please!! If you are going to make sweeping statements like this you need to provide information about which types of couples you are referring to and supply your evidence.
loading...
“enouraging the domination of women through the use of condoms”….
really??? puh-lease.
loading...
Amazing work Melinda. It is so important for this issue to have such a well regarded advocate.
loading...
Melinda Gates – what a fabulous woman.
Actually, I’m pretty impressed with the impact the Gates’ are having on the world as a whole.
loading...
What I would like to see is Gina Rinehart take the lead of Gates and Warren Buffett and say, I don’t need that $30 billion, and work out what good she could do with it.
loading...
One of the things that will save the third world is the education of women, and allowing women to control their biology. This equals more education, care and fewer people to provide for in these communities. Many benefits.
loading...
Thanks for publishing this. Excellent and important issue
loading...
She’s a tour de force, and everyone should of course have access to contraception, but from what I understand the practicalities of getting it to people in poor, remote communities seem to remain the biggest problem. Not only getting it to them, but getting the education that goes along with it to them (given they are just like us and can be rather suspicious of new information). And even if the education reaches them, they are often bound by religious or cultural constraints (ie: woman would like less children but husband wants a large family, to take care of him in his dotage, and getting a chance to get out without husband knowing to get their injection can be problematic if not impossible). And getting to a clinic for an injection on a day when there is someone there to administer the contraception can be another challenge. But yes, she’s great to keep this on her agenda and choose to promote awareness. There just doesn’t seem to be an easy fix…
loading...
It is tricky Sah … but I think if we start small and reach the people that can be reached, a new cultural shift will start to occur. People will become less suspicious because they heard of their cousin taking it and she’s fine, a new economy will start to build around the provision of these services (someone will find a way to make money off it somewhere), contraception will start to become more available and women whose husbands don’t approve might start to have access through other family members …
But definitely, good points, things that need to be considered and planned for!
loading...
Fantastic work.
Contraception is so important, as unwanted pregnancy can have such a negative health impact on a woman, and her other children.
Not to mention the importance of barrier contraception and STI prevention.
loading...
So impressed, wouldn’t it be amazing to have what you care about put “centre stage” because of who you were. Using great power for good. Love it.
loading...
Bit of an issue thought that Gates and the Gates Foundation are opposed to abortion which is an essential element of reproductive choice
loading...
They are opposed, and I wish they weren’t, but that doesn’t mean they can’t still do great things. You can achieve in the area of contraception without touching on the abortion issue. Melinda said that it may work in their favour – the foundation will be welcomed into more communities and policy making arenas as the touchy issue of abortion is not on the agenda. I think women will take what they can get. Other groups can take up the abortion issue. For me it does not detract from the achievement in pursuing contraception freedom.
loading...
The best way to reduce the numbers of abortions is to make birth control accessible and affordable.
loading...
I don’t agree, Jen.
Birth control has been free in the UK for decades. It’s widely available from either GPs or family planning clinics. The UK still has one of the highest termination rates in Europe.
None of it works without education, and that education includes knowing how to use it, when it won’t work and raising the self esteem of girls whose boyfriends refuse to have sex with them if they want them to use a condom because they “don’t like the feel of it” and have promised that they’ll be “careful.”
Edit – my point relates to contraception in developed countries, not developing nations. With that point I’m in agreement with Jen’s point.
loading...
Completely agree with you Jen. There have been a few studies done looking at the correlation between failing abortion rates and how they relate to access to contraception. During the Bush administration, foreign aid was diverted into AIDS and malaria medications, away from contraception programs. As a result, abortion rates stopped declining.
loading...
I’m sorry, but I can’t agree with you here.
Abortion should be the absolute last choice, when all other choices have failed, right? So if someone is using contraception correctly, then they wont need abortion – hopefully, though I know mistakes do happen.
I applaud the Gates for teaching effective Family Planning.
I wish we could also marry this with a big push on safe sex (hello Australia last year having a massive chlamydia breakout!) and human rights, so we can reduce the rate of sexual and physical violence against women, who then are unable to support themselves when/if they fall pregnant as a result of the violence.
But any focus on being able to “choose” is a step in the right direction!
loading...
contraception is not 100% effective. I use both the pill and condoms majority of the times together, and am on at least either the pill or using condoms for the other few times and have somehow managed to fall pregnant twice in 9 years.
Accidents do happen but there is alot of education still needed in regards to contraception to ensure that it is being used effectively and correctly.
loading...
One of the reasons that contraception has disappeared from the Global Health Agenda is that it’s been bundled with abortion for the reasons you advance – that it’s part of reproductive health. All well and good in countries that agree with this but if the choice is contraception and abortion then many countries will take none rather than both. Insisting on abortion rights as well is a classic example of the policy trap of making the perfect the enemy of the good.
And of course another reason – it’s her money and she can spend it as she wishes.
loading...
I think you can support contraception and still be personally against abortion. There’s quite a difference between ensuring a pregancy doesn’t occur and terminating one that has occured. I think there’s no issue with their position, and that good work in the contraception field will hopefully reduce the need for as many abortions!
Please note that my comment does not reflect anyone’s decision to have an abortion, I firmly believe this is a personal choice for people to make in their circumstances and whatever is right for that individual is the right choice.
loading...
What an amazing and inspiring woman. We need more of her.
loading...
I adore Melinda Gates, what a wonderful thing she is doing!
loading...
Not in Australia it’s not
There should be no excuse for unwanted babies here IMO
loading...
Because accidents never happen? Because there is a form of contraception to suit all women? Because a woman could never be so poor in this country as to not be able to afford contraception and find herself in a situation of unwanted sex, like domestic violence? Because we shouldn’t care about what is happening on the global scale to other women? Because we have no fear of the US agenda coming here – like with US funded and trained groups and abortion? This is an issue for Australian women, perhaps not as pressing as in the US or Africa, but it matters.
http://claudiagrant.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/holding-out-for-a-hero-melinda-gates/
loading...
You have your head in the sand if you don’t recognise that most abortions happen because the “choice” was to have sex with no protection. Abortion is being used as birth control, we all talk about the exceptions to the rule (rape etc) or the odd woman who forgets to take the pill, but the vast majority of the time the woman has sex knowing the risks. It really would be a better debate if the facts were used.
loading...
I’d like to see which reliable source you’re using when you claim that the majority of abortions are birth control for women who have chosen to have unprotected consensual sex. Having discussions based on facts is very important. Please provide the ones that back up your claim.
loading...
Guest, please feel free to post supporting evidence for your wildly entertaining claim.
loading...
In fairness people promoting the other argument (majority of terminations resulting from pregnancies where contraceptives failed) should be asked for their evidence too.
loading...
I have my head in research, not the sand. This is just one source. If you think this one is biased there are many more in this vein. This relates to US women but gives a general picture. The stats are probably even more favourable in Australia.
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html
CONTRACEPTIVE USE
• Fifty-four percent of women who have abortions had used a contraceptive method (usually the condom or the pill) during the month they became pregnant. Among those women, 76% of pill users and 49% of condom users report having used their method inconsistently, while 13% of pill users and 14% of condom users report correct use.[8]
• Forty-six percent of women who have abortions had not used a contraceptive method during the month they became pregnant. Of these women, 33% had perceived themselves to be at low risk for pregnancy, 32% had had concerns about contraceptive methods, 26% had had unexpected sex and 1% had been forced to have sex.[8]
• Eight percent of women who have abortions have never used a method of birth control; nonuse is greatest among those who are young, poor, black, Hispanic or less educated.[8]
• About half of unintended pregnancies occur among the 11% of women who are at risk for unintended pregnancy but are not using contraceptives. Most of these women have practiced contraception in the past.[9,10]
Sorting all that out it is a tiny percent had sex when planned and did not use contraception for no good reason (like concerns about the method or low risk of pregnancy). And then of that % most are poor and uneducated.
Despite the odd tabloid headline abortion is not the birth control of sluttish and feckless women.
loading...
Perhaps you need to read those statistics again. 54% of women had not used contraception at all or consistently in the month proceeding their pregnancy, dot points one and three. So maybe not consciously they use abortion as birth control, but you have to ask if women would engage in that behaviour if abortion wasn’t an option?
loading...
Did you bother to read the breakdown, or just interpret it to suit your position? Of the women who did not use contraception the majority believed they were at low risk of pregnancy, had problems with contraceptive measures or were poor and uneducated. Hardly careless women using abortion knowingly as contraception.
loading...
And Here I was thinking that it takes Sperm and an Egg to fall pregnant….
Silly me !! Of course its only women that have sex isn’t it Guest. The poor man just lies there helplessly while the wicked women has her way with him to use and abuse and trap him with Pregnancy !! Here’s a thought if men don’t want women to fall pregnant , perhaps a vasectomy might be in order ?? Or better yet, and this will cost both sexes absolutley nothing .. If you don’t want to fall pregnant don’t have SEX ………. uuuummmmaaahhh Shocking I know but a highly effective method if you ask me….
loading...
The first point actually says 54% HAD USED contraception although some were inconsistent using it.
loading...
“Abortion is being used as birth control”… really?
loading...
Actually, I think you’ll find that across the Western world, a fair percentage of abortions actually occur for heath reasons, because the baby has a birth defect, or Down’s Syndrome, or something like that. This isn’t “birth control”, this is babies that had been wanted by people who had planned to fall pregnant but the pregnancy wasn’t viable. This is something that staunch anti-abortion types just conveniently ignore whenever they discuss this issue. They paint women who chose to have abortions as these blase selfish people who just didn’t feel like having a baby just then and ignore the complexity of the issue completely; just one of the many reasons why doctors, and not politicians or priests, should be advising people on these decisions.
loading...
and what are you basing your opinion on???
loading...
I had been happily married for two years, and on a new type of Pill for four months – taking it correctly – when I fell pregnant. My doctor could offer no explanation, other than perhaps I had mild virus which affected the effectiveness of the Pill, or that it was perhaps my body adjusting to the new Pill – either way, I was pregnant when I did not plan or want to be.
Now, for me, in my situation, it was just all happening too soon. I did want to have babies ‘one day’ and so after getting over the shock, we changed our entire life plan and had a baby. However, to say that there is no excuse for unwanted babies in Australia seems naive to me, as someone who had every resource available to them and still had an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy. I know people who have experienced an unplanned pregnancy, some of whom have kept their babies and others who haven’t, and there are so many different ways that this happens that I think it is a hugely unfair assumption to make that there should not be any unwanted babies in Australia.
By the way – I love my baby (now five) and his little sister, and am looking forward to having another. Sometimes unplanned and ‘unwanted’ works out…and sometimes it doesn’t…
loading...