Self-determined sexuality also in developing countries

Since May 1968 it has been a human right to be able to freely decide how many children you want. In 1994, the World Population Conference in Cairo adopted a plan of action to improve reproductive health care, including family planning and the empowerment of women.

        But a right to family planning is of no use if access to contraceptives is not made possible in practice. For large sections of the population in developing countries, the means for family planning are prohibitively expensive. They thus depend on aid organizations offering them contraceptives at a very low price or free of charge.

Left-leaning liberals and religious organizations prevent money from being spent on family planning in developing countries.

The Catholic Church refers to catechism.

http://www.vatican.va/archive/DEU0035/_P8C.HTM

2370 Temporary abstinence as well as the methods of conception regulation based on self-observation and the choice of the woman’s infertile periods [cf. HV 16] correspond to the objective criteria of morality. These methods respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage them to be affectionate and favor educating and raising in genuine freedom. On the other hand, “any act which, either in anticipation of, during or after the execution of the matrimonial act, at the end of its natural effects, is intended to prevent reproduction, whether as an end or as a means to an end, is reprehensible" (HV 14). While sexual union, by its very nature, expresses an unconditional gift of the spouses to each other, contraception turns it into an objectively contradictory gesture - a gift of not giving oneself completely. Thus the active rejection of openness to life is accompanied by a falsification of the inner truth of marital love ....

 When I read this section online, I initially thought that I had accidentally opened a version of catechism from centuries ago. But there is no more recent version.

Psalm 127 says: Children are also a gift from the Lord; whoever receives them will be richly rewarded. But one cannot derive from this that it is “reprehensible” to use means for family planning. In Europe, while hardly any Catholic adheres to catechism, they are unlikely aware that it causes great issues in Africa when they donate money to Caritas.

The following view held by left-wing liberal circles and do-gooders is no less inhibited:

In order to place women in a better position, access to family planning should not be improved, but education, health and prosperity should be promoted. Reproductive self-determination will then emerge automatically.

I recommend people who hold such views take a trip to a poor rural area in Africa. Look into the eyes of hopeful young girls who will probably never be able to raise the funds for family planning and imagine how these destitute girls will soon be mothers of six to eight children!

A lot of girls become pregnant at an early age and then prematurely end their time at school.

Every year there are 89 million unwanted pregnancies and 36 million often fatal abortions. https://www.dsw.org/freiwillige-familienplanung

There are certainly also men who want to prove their potency by means of the number of children they have, or mothers-in-law who urge women to have more children. However, millions of women in developing countries have no access to the means and materials for family planning.

Most African young adults have the opportunity to watch western movies on occasion these days. These then show them the sexual liberties that we enjoy in Europe and the US.

An American study revealed that young men think about sex 19 times per day. But it is obvious that this is no different in Africa.

We have brought life-saving medicines and a very permissive culture to people in developing countries, so we are now obliged to provide access to funds for voluntary family planning.

A racist mentality would be needed to want to reserve self-determined sexuality for the white population, only.

25.5 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV. This is another reason why more resources need to be spent on health care combined with education and access to contraceptives.

In Zambia, for example, 60 percent of the population lives on less than one dollar a day. How is the population there meant to raise the funds for HIV prevention and family planning by itself through more school education in the coming years?