Contraception addresses the problems of the poor not by striking at their roots, but by shifting the focus altogether. It reduces poverty by eliminating the poor. <\/p>\n
Contraception does not build neonatal care facilities. It does not reduce the distances that girls have to travel to get to distant schools.<\/p>\n
It does not assure that the crop will not fail this year, and it does not boost small family businesses. Contraception is a solution, but not the solution to poverty.<\/p>\n
{{Social destruction}}<\/p>\n
Yet, you may still wonder: \u2018Why not adopt hormonal contraception and extend maternal healthcare facilities to reach poorer women when it fails?\u2019 <\/p>\n
When a girl on contraceptives does a pregnancy test and it comes out positive, the first words the man says are usually something along the lines of: \u2018I thought you were using contraceptives.\u2019 Although both of them were engaged in sexual intercourse not too long ago, the outcome is her fault. The blame is on her. It\u2019s her burden to bear.<\/p>\n
The next few sentences could take one of two routes. Either the man says, \u2018We\u2019re in this together\u2019 \u2013 he commits himself to raise the child with her, no matter what \u2013 or he says, \u2018What are you going to do about the problem?\u2019 Or worse, \u2018That\u2019s your problem.\u2019 <\/p>\n
And let\u2019s face it: for 15-year-old girls whose sexual partners are probably incapable of financially sustaining themselves, let alone a family, the second answer is far more likely, even when it\u2019s the man\u2019s condom that failed.<\/p>\n
This second answer reduces the woman, supposedly beloved, to a problem. She was never loved for who she was. If she was, then the natural consequence of who she was \u2013 a woman \u2013 would not be referred to as a \u2018problem\u2019. She was loved only insofar as she made her lover happy. She was used. Objectified. From the start.<\/p>\n
The man \u2013 the objectifier \u2013 doesn\u2019t walk away unscathed either. The objectification and the intensity of the sexual experience leave him wanting more. It\u2019s part of male physiology <\/p>\n
He becomes less able to have meaningful relationships. He falls into a void of loneliness that many have described, including celebrities like Terry Crews and Russell Brand.<\/p>\n
When he marries (if he does marry), the marriage is more unstable. Again, this can devastate him and his partner, not to mention their children, who will be more susceptible to depression, anxiety and alcohol and drug abuse. <\/p>\n
Their sons are more likely to become delinquent and to have trouble forming bonds with others (see \u2018Marriage and the Public Good: Ten Principles\u2019 by the Witherspoon Institute, freely available online). And this is what happens when the contraceptives work, which isn\u2019t as often as you might think. <\/p>\n
Multiplied on a societal scale, these effects manifest themselves as a dramatic increase in single, unsupported motherhood; a dramatic increase in crime rates and the occurrence of mental health disorders; and an increase in rape and sexual harassment. <\/p>\n
The real cause of the crisis that Rwanda\u2019s 15-year-old girls will face is sexual intimacy unaccompanied by the mutual commitment that marriage and offspring tend to come with. The directive that our government proposes is detrimental to both. <\/p>\n
The effects this will have on Rwandan society will be enormous. You don\u2019t have to trust us. Just look at the Western world yourself.<\/p>\n
THE AUTHOR IS A LAW STUDENT AT STRATHMORE UNIVERSITY<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The term \u2018contraceptives\u2019 is usually used to refer to one of the many methods of preventing pregnancy (condoms, cervical caps etc.) or the hormonal methods (IUDs, implants, injections, pills and vaginal rings). Generally, contraceptives manipulate the fertility of women. They allow them to spread their finances over fewer children, purportedly bettering their outcomes. After all, more money per child, more prosperity per child, right? Wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[241],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-40369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-butera-michael"],"bylines":[{"id":241,"name":"Butera Michael","slug":"butera-michael","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":93}],"contributors":[{"id":241,"name":"Butera Michael","slug":"butera-michael","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":93}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40369\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40369"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=40369"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=40369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}