S.F. RESULTS

San Jose Mercury News website

Sunday, February 26, 2012

February 26 readers' letters

From Mercury News readers

Posted: 02/25/2012 08:00:00 PM PST

Anti-abortion stance hurts world's women

I agree with Steve Smallwood's "Mission against poverty requires birth control," (Letters, Feb. 18), which suggests that the Catholic Church's opposition to birth control detracts from its excellent work in helping people in poverty. Its opposition is a central factor in family planning not being within the U.S. aid programs that have benefited the world's poor for decades.

In developing countries, hundreds of millions of women long for access to family planning methods. They know that having no control of their pregnancies results in increased maternal deaths and larger families they cannot feed. Unplanned pregnancies condemn them to not receive the education that might allow them a way out of their poverty. And in the reality of human lives, it also leads to many unsafe abortions.

Bob Alders
Mountain View

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