Skip to footer

Contraception: UN says access is a human right, and a money saver

Contraception and access to family is a universal human right, according to the United Nation's Population Fund's annual report.

|
Reuters
Contraception access is a human right according to a UN new report released. Here, housewives hold their babies while waiting for a free pediatric check-up at a government health center in Manila, Aug. 6, 2012.
  • By Associated Press AP

| GENEVA

The United Nations says access to contraception is a universal human right that could dramatically improve the lives of women and children in poor countries.

RELATED: Are you a 'Helicopter Parent?' take our QUIZ!

It is the first time the U.N. Population Fund's annual report explicitly describes family planning as a human right.

It effectively declares that legal, cultural, and financial barriers to accessing contraception and other family planning measures are an infringement of women's rights.

The report released Nov. 14 isn't binding and has no legal effect on national laws.

The global body also says increasing funding for family planning by a further $4.1 billion could save $11.3 billion annually in health bills for mothers and newborns in poor countries.

The U.N. doesn't count abortion among the measures.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Contraception: UN says access is a human right, and a money saver
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/2012/1115/Contraception-UN-says-access-is-a-human-right-and-a-money-saver
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe