As President Barack Obama begins his first term in office, he is bringing many changes with him. One thing that he has vowed to change in only the first few hours of his administration is a bill that former Bush had blocked in 2002. It is a bill proposing that the United States give $34 million dollars to other countries for birth control. Besides contraception, this would also include abortions. This is clearly very controversial, especially since it would be a governmentally funded abortion.
One aspect of this that I thought was interesting is that this was proposed not only with women in mind, but with global over-population in mind. It is fairly common knowledge that the world is extremely overpopulated right now and this bill really adresses not one hot issue right now, but two!
In my opinion, I don't know how I feel about giving away this much money right now when our own country is in a depression. If we are going to give money to countries in need, I would rather give $34 million dollars to people that are in need of food, schools, clothing, etc. Don't get me wrong, I definitely believe in contraception and awarenes (abortion is another topic) but I think that there are more important things that we could be doing with this money right now.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/24/family-planning-and-the-path-to-progress/?hp
I agree with you thoughts on Obama's choice in pushing for the bill. Overpopulation is an issue which with the right steps can be prevented and therefore helping issue such as shortages in resources. However I believe that their are better ways to improving life for people in thrid world countries. I agree with you and believe the first step is to put the money or at least the biggest portion of the 34million dollars toward providing food, healthcare, and education to people.
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