Ivory Coast Medicine

7 Billion Reasons

Chances are, you'll hear or read soon that the world's population is about to hit 7 billion. Get ready for cool graphics demonstrating its remarkable escalation over the past century, as modern medicine and agricultural advances helped people live longer and societies flourish, while fertility rates remained higher than "replacement level" in much of the world.

Prepare for pictures of thousands riding their bikes in polluted Beijing, hordes of refugees seeking protection from violence in Libya and the Ivory Coast, and starving masses in Somalia and Sudan. Listen for the inevitable calls to control population growth so that we can save our planet from overcrowding and instability.

But think carefully before you buy into the hype and join the simplistic call for limiting family sizes around the world.

Yes, the world's population continues to grow, and in many places it is growing at unsustainable rates. Far too many communities do not have the desks or books to educate their growing populace of young people. Many regions lack food and water to adequately nourish their residents. As more and more people move into urban districts that are unprepared for them, dangerous slums and settlements are becoming more prevalent. Many rural families rely on firewood for fuel, but forests are diminishing at unprecedented rates as a result of not only local fuel demand but also changing consumption patterns.

Addressing these issues with top-down, numbers-driven approaches, however, has not only proven to be ineffective, it is also decidedly anti-feminist.

In 1994, as the world headed toward a then unrealistic-seeming population of 6 billion, 179 countries came together at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo to discuss how to ensure a sustainable, healthy planet. After decades of addressing population growth through demographic approaches and the mass distribution of birth control, the global community–led in large part by feminists who decried such paternalistic approaches in favor of individual rights–embraced a more comprehensive and rights-based notion of sexual and reproductive health. This broader approach included not just family planning but also maternal and infant health, prevention of gender-based violence, empowerment of women and the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections.

The ICPD approach recognized that when individuals and couples have the information and means with which to plan their families, they are more likely to choose to have smaller families. But in the developing world, it would take government support–including funding from industrialized countries–to help meet women's reproductive needs.

Ivory Coast prelate urges end to medicine embargo - Catholic Culture

As civilians flee strife-torn Ivory Coast’s capital for the countryside, the nation’s leading prelate has asked the European Union to end a month-old embargo on medicine.

“You do not need a lot of arguments to understand that life is sacred and that it must be protected,” said Archbishop Jean-Pierre Kutwa of Abidjan. “The fifth commandment says 'Thou shalt not kill'. Every person has the right to health and life. Therefore, the embargo on medicine is an act that goes against that right.”

Supporters of incumbent Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo are battling supporters of Alassane Ouattara. Gbagbo, a Catholic, lost the 2010 presidential election to Ouattara, a Muslim, but has refused to step down from office.

Archbishop Kutwa called upon both parties in the conflict to “stop the killings and violence.”

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