Africa's Birthrate: Why Women Must be Free to Choose

 As of last week, our planet now has 7 billion inhabitants. "The current rate of growth means that there are 78 million more people every year. Nearly all of that growth -- 97 out of every 100 people - is occurring in less developed countries." On the other hand, more developed countries such as Japan and many in Europe are facing a different issue. Their growth rate is too low, meaning that many of their inhabitants are aging, and there aren’t enough people in the next generation to replace them.

   Africa’s growth rate has doubled that of Asia. Births are happening too early, late, and closely spaced, which brings about a serious issue in the health of African women and children. African women rarely have the chance to choose whether or not they want to have a child. To obtain contraceptives, women must walk miles. Most of the time they aren’t even available anywhere around them.

    “Across the world more than two in five pregnancies are unplanned.” This statistic may be quite shocking to us Americans who always have contraceptives at our disposal. Surveys have shown that if all women had the choice of when they want to have children, average global childbearing would “immediately fall below the 'replacement fertility' value of slightly more than two children per woman.” Which means everyone would be in the same predicament as Japan.

   Another issue is that of social standing. Family size and wealth are tied together in some countries because having a large family shows that you can support that many people. Although, this is not always the case, which means that a lot of these families are stuck in a perpetual cycle of poverty.

   IPPF’s (International Planned Parenthood Foundation) mission is “to do our utmost to ensure that Africa's women and girls have the services, supplies and information to exercise their reproductive rights and live their lives with dignity, respect and meaning.”

Source: ( http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/07/world/africa/melesse-seven-billion/index.html )