Policy Recommendations
The moral obligation of hegemonic bodies to provide aid is substantiated by John Rawls, who notes that ‘we have a natural duty not to be cruel, and a duty to help one another, whether or not we have committed ourselves to these actions’.10 The West, we contend, has committed itself to aid for developing nations, and particularly to providing contraception. For nations such as the United States to seek to withdraw from these obligations would increase the incidence of unwanted pregnancies, and therefore be an unconscionably cruel policy choice.
We recommend the promotion of education, particularly for women and girls. This will include the public awareness of contraception, delivered through campaigning. We also recommend simple, yet accurate written medical advice to be available, whether trained medical staff are present or not. We propose the provision of qualified teachers in every primary and secondary school, and equal access for girls to be educated. We consider the provision of timely and accurate contraception information in the developing world to be an ethical necessity. This is morally required because inaccurate information surrounding birth control can lead to many more unwanted pregnancies, thus increasing women’s hardship— without accurate advice available, unreliable methods (including withdrawal) may be resorted to.11
Moreover, we consider truth to be an essential ethical virtue in all contexts; we cannot consider it morally justifiable to tell women convenient ‘half-truths’ or ‘white lies’ to assist our policy objectives. Nussbaum’s sixth functional capability (practical reason) depends on women’s access to the facts.12 This particularly underlies our opposition to the ‘Mexico City rule’, which forbids American federal funding of abortion advice. Nussbaum also describes the value of literacy in controlling population, contrasting it with permanent methods such as sterilisation.
