{"id":249757,"date":"2021-07-24T15:37:24","date_gmt":"2021-07-24T20:37:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=249757"},"modified":"2021-07-26T11:20:45","modified_gmt":"2021-07-26T16:20:45","slug":"study-no-health-economic-benefits-contraception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/study-no-health-economic-benefits-contraception\/","title":{"rendered":"Study finds ‘no long term health or economic benefits’ of contraception in developing nations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Promoting birth control in developing countries has long been promoted as a means of reducing poverty rates and improving economic outcomes for women. Now, a major new study has called into question the development logic underlying these initiatives.<\/p>\n

The supposed link between contraceptives and improving women\u2019s lives in developing countries has been almost universally accepted by major western philanthropic organizations, governments, and charitable institutions.\u00a0This assumption is a cornerstone belief of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. “If you don’t give women access to contraceptives you are locking them into a cycle of poverty,” Melinda Gates said in 2018 regarding Burkina Faso, according to News24<\/a>.<\/p>\n

READ: Biden thinks US is world\u2019s \u2018savior,\u2019 but Africans want real assistance, not abortions<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Gates Foundation has long prioritized contraceptive access in the developing world, hoping to reach 120 million women in developing countries by 2020 with \u201cthe longer-term goal of universal access to voluntary family planning,\u201d And why? Because \u201cwhen women and girls have access to contraceptives and care that enable them to make informed decisions, they are more empowered to live their lives as they \u2014 and not others \u2014 choose,\u201d claims the group\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) uses similar reasoning. \u201cFamily planning is central to gender equality and women\u2019s empowerment, and it is a key factor in reducing poverty,\u201d the UNFPA\u2019s website<\/a> claims. The lack of contraceptives for\u00a0 hundreds of millions of women, they believe, \u201cthreatens their ability to build a better future for themselves, their families and their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

New study finds no link between birth control and improved outcomes for women<\/strong><\/p>\n

But as reported in Time magazine<\/a>, a major new study has shattered the assumed premise of decades of development assistance, having found \u201cno long-term health or economic benefits\u201d of such programs.<\/p>\n

The new study<\/a>, published on July 5 in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal, reexamined data from a 12-year-long study on women in Matlab, Bangladesh, that observed whether women in rural and traditional villages would use contraceptives if made available and if obstacles were removed. Women from more than 70 villages took part in the study, and the result was that most participants did, in fact, use the contraceptives that were offered to them.<\/p>\n