Neglect of Contraception

The primary reasons for the neglect of contraception are partly cultural, and usually religious in origin. Large-scale providers of healthcare and education in Africa, including the Catholic church, take a moral stance against premarital sex, and consequently fail to provide any kind of effective birth control. State providers, including the United States government, may be unwilling to provide access to, or even advice about, abortions, and thus limit the effectiveness of their entire programmes.3 Other reasons for this current situation include a lack of accurate information disseminated by a trusted source (central government bodies, health education, lack of resources and infrastructure to spread public service announcements).4

Addressing this issue is thus a practical requirement to advancing the interests of the developing world, and improving living standards more generally. However, there is a particular ethical obligation to advance the interests of women in the developing world. Though constituting roughly half the population, women are grossly underrepresented in industry, leadership positions, politics, academia, and religious hierarchies. Their treatment under law is frequently inferior, and their ability to defend themselves against domestic violence or rape is minimal in a male-dominated culture. Promoting women’s empowerment by ostensibly small measures may dramatically improve women’s lives, and for more women than those immediately effected by the policy change.

Our commitment to Global Justice means that we, as human beings with fundamentally identical basic needs and universal rights, have a positive duty to lift fellow humans out of poverty and correct inequality worldwide.5 With the Global South bearing the brunt of poverty, overpopulation, and environmental degradation, the First World is obligated to assist. Increasing access to contraception in developing nations would be a definite step in fulfilling these moral obligations.