Reproductive Rights

The Bio-Logical Dilemma for African Women

| alexandersanger

The recent study, reporting that injectable contraceptives lead to an increased risk of HIV acquisition, and thus confirming earlier similar studies, puts women in high HIV areas in a reproductive quandary – how can they get pregnant and space and limit their pregnancies without putting themselves at undue risk for HIV? To get pregnant, women must have unprotected sex (assisted reproductive technologies are not available in Africa) and a man’s seminal emissions carries both sperm and HIV. To avoid pregnancy, a woman’s choices are now circumscribed by a new factor beyond those of her body’s’ tolerance for the particular contraceptive (her reaction to contraceptive hormones) and her partner’s willingness to use a male method (condoms or vasectomy)or joint method (withdrawal or periodic abstinence). Depo-Provera, which is widely used in Africa, because it requires no male cooperation, is long lasting and hidden and not dependent on daily usage or usage immediately before intercourse (the diaphragm or a sponge) or after (douching), now apparently leads to a doubling of the risk of infection. Injectables are a double edged sword – they can effectively reduce unintended pregnancy but subject the user to higher risk of HIV and other sexually –transmitted infections (STIs). While the simple answer is that couples, and especially males, should be encouraged to use condoms in addition to a woman-controlled method, this has been difficult to achieve. Women bear more risks of acquiring a sexually transmitted infection than males do. For instance with gonorrhea, a male has a 20% chance of becoming infected during a single act of unprotected intercourse with an infected woman, whereas, in the reverse case, the woman has a 60-80% chance. These risks to the woman include infertility, which puts an end to whatever her reproductive aspirations were (two-thirds of infertility in African women is caused by pelvic inflammatory disease). Unplanned pregnancies, unless terminated by abortion, and in Africa these have serious and dire health consequences, since they are done under unsafe conditions, can contribute to the inability of the mother to care for the children she already has, contributing to their early deaths. The recent push for male circumcision in Africa could compound the problem, as males may become even more unwilling to use condoms. Switching women to other hormonal contraceptives does not appear to be an answer, since the Pill has been found to lead to an increase in Chlamydia and gonorrhea and some studies indicate the same for the Pill and HIV.
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From Punjab to Phoenix – Culture, Economics and the Status of Women

| alexandersanger

By Alexander Sanger

India recently released its Census 2011, which, despite government efforts to the contrary, revealed a continuing deterioration of the nation’s child sex ratio. In the 0 to 6 age group, the number of females per 1000 males declined to 914 from 927 in 2001, 945 in 1991, 962 in 1981 and 976 in 1961 (the norm, sans female discrimination, is 950). The sex ratio at birth (males per 100 females) was estimated at 112 (the norm being 105), and there are some indications that it is improving slightly. India’s skewed sex ratio is due to increased female foeticide, neglect of the girl child and sex-selection abortion. There are indications that parts of India have long had a deficit of females.
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March 5: Margery Durant

| alexandersanger

I will be giving a talk at the Owls Head Transportation Museum in Rockland, Maine on Saturday March 5 at 1pm on my other grandmother, Margery Durant. The title is

No Dearth on the Nile: Margery Durant Flies in Style to Africa

In 1932/33, Margery Durant conducted an air-popularization tour of the Mediterranean and Africa. Recount her travels with her grandson, Alexander Sanger as he shares the family’s pictures and film from the tour.