Right to contraception in Sierra Leone (Africa)

So, someone sent me a message with a link to a video:

I’d really like to know your take. A video of a woman who is pro-life arguing that contraception is what the west thinks African women need but not the solution

I watched the video and it honestly gave me a headache. The BBC anchor didn’t know how to articulate her points and questions and the lady (the Pro-lifer) gave me a migraine with her “the west” “the west,” which sounds like a lot of what people use when they can’t argue well enough on their own. They try to make it a West vs. Africa issue and not looking at the issue strictly from even an African viewpoint. Here is this lady — who strangely reminds me of another individual I can’t stand, Fuambai, who is pro-FGM—talking about Africa and African women and I honestly stopped listening after she said “well I visit” or something like that. Doh! So you helicopter in and perhaps chat to a few women and think you know the plights of the women. She oversimplifies the African woman’s plight, so much to just wanting food and water. Are you not belittling the very women who you claim to be fighting for? I am sure if you have more in-depth conversations and look at root causes, it is beyond just giving them food and water, it is deeper!

Anyway, I asked: who is this lady? I looked her up and found her website:

Uju is also a specialist biomedical scientist in Haematology, working at a Hospital in the United Kingdom. Prior to her current position, she was a Medical Laboratory Scientist at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital. She holds a Masters degree in biomedical science from the University of East London and a Bachelors degree in microbiology from the University of Nigeria. Uju was born in southeast Nigeria, the youngest of six children, and has resided in the U.K. since 2006.

So basically she goes around giving talks and things on being pro-life, with a very religious lens. It is so hard to discuss such things with people like this. I always avoided this topic because most pro-lifers look at this issue strictly from a religious point of view and the problem then comes from the fact that we don’t all share the same religious beliefs. If we just stick to the facts and to respond to both her and the BBC anchor’s points:

1. In a highly patriarchal society, African women (yes, I am making generalized statements here, obviously doesn’t apply to everyone) don’t even THINK that they have the right to say what happens to their bodies. From the whole concept of marriage and the reason why you are with a man, the woman’s purpose is to have children. Even if the woman is tired of having children, she feels helpless in speaking up

2. She may not even know (which is what the BBC lady was trying to say, but terribly) that there are options like contraceptives, even though, as Uju mentioned this has been a huge campaign across the world in developing nations. More and more women are finding out about family planning and most programs I know about also include the men in this and engage families in a way that is understanding of their situation. Family planning does help strenuous circumstances when it comes to poverty. Even though Africans think more kids means more people to help out with things, it is actually the opposite. Those kids have to grow to a certain age before they can do anything, and it is a HUGE responsibility. Even when they are at a age where they can contribute, the economic situations in most countries is so dire that most don’t have the means to sustain themselves i.e. high unemployment rate.

3. Most people don’t think about circumstances outside of just family planning when we talk about contraception. A quick aside, most people also think contraception is just IUDs, which is not the case, but that’s another matter. So things outside of family being: rape, which leads to pregnancy, complications during early pregnancy, high-risk pregnancies, such as for older women. Preventing all these circumstances, which are more common than we think, is a big reason why this should be a right.

4. Contraception IS a woman’s right not a human right. I’ll be controversial here. It is the right of the woman to have control over what happens to her! No one should dictate that. That is her right as a woman.

IF we think about the above and just things like the above and not on religious grounds and the others, there is a big argument for contraception. So my response to the lady? Oh just shut up. I am tired of women like you who continuously make it seem like the west is just forcing things on us. There are many CAPABLE African women at the forefront of issues, such as contraception and UNDERSTAND fully the implications. They are not brainwashed by western thought. They are brilliant and looking out for the best interest of their fellow sisters.

That’s all from me.