Give Thanks for Family Planning

There are so many things to be grateful for this season.  Family, friends, health, wealth – those are the usual suspects when it comes time to give thanks.

Here is another important one to add to your list:  Safe, effective birth control for women.

Consider this: it used to be nearly impossible for a woman to prevent pregnancy without either getting really lucky, abstaining from sex entirely, or paying strict attention to timing and fertility cycles.  Condoms have been around for hundreds of years but methods like the Pill, which allow women to take precautions themselves have only been around since the 1960s.  When women (and men) have the freedom to start families when they’re ready and add to their families when the time is right, there is much to be thankful for.  The ability to prevent pregnancy gives a woman the ability to choose how her life will unfold – education, marriage, career, family – in whatever order she desires.

In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists the development of modern methods of contraception as one of the greatest public health achievements of the past century and it is easy to see why.  The ability to control when pregnancy occurs is directly linked to decreased poverty, increased educational and workforce opportunities for women especially, greater opportunities for preconception and prenatal care and more adequate spacing of pregnancies—all of which benefit women, their children, and families. Preventing unplanned pregnancy is important for everyone, especially children. After all, children born following an unplanned pregnancy are significantly less likely to be raised in healthy, low conflict, two-parent families and more likely to experience adverse health and development consequences as a result.  In addition, the vast majority of abortions in the United States follow an unplanned pregnancy.

So when you look around the table this holiday season, look at the women and girls in your family, and think about all they have accomplished and all the achievements that lie ahead.  And add family planning to the list of things to be thankful for.


For more on various methods of contraception: http://www.sexreally.com/birth-control-101

Please Login or Register to post comments on this article

Close Comment  |   Read More Comments Hide More Comments

Comments * :

Please do not enter the HTML tags(Maximum 600 characters).