As our fearless leaders duke it out over contraception, blustering on as though women’s needs were mere political ping-pong, the time is ripe for environmentalists to embrace new alliances centered on empowering women. To begin, consider four little-discussed facts:
1. Without contraception, the average woman would become pregnant roughly 12 to 15 times in her life.
2. Contraception has proven to save lives and improve health on such a scale that it ranks alongside seat belts and antibiotics as one of the greatest public-health achievements of the 20th century.
3. An estimated 215 million women around the world wish to avoid pregnancy but are not using modern contraception.
4. More than 7 billion humans live on earth, and the largest generation ever is now coming of age.
These are the cold, hard facts of life that will shape the future of the world. If we act quickly to meet the needs of all women who wish to decide for themselves the number and spacing of their children, world population will peak at about 8 billion; if we fail, our numbers will soar to 12 billion or more, compounding the challenges of global warming, water shortages, ... Read more
