In a recent New York Times article about the 25 year old woman from Kinshasa, capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Emilie Lunda stated she didn't want to get pregnant. Emilie nearly died during childbirth. The doctors were able to save her, but the baby didn't survive. Emilie was afraid to get pregnant, but was ignorant to the existence of birth control.
In numerous parts of Africa, where family upbringing takes place in poverty, contraception isn't educated about or available. In the rural areas of the Congo Republic where birth control is available, people often regard it has unaffordable. More absurd, the clinics and hospitals in the Congo Republic provide contraception only to women who bring there husbands in to sign off on them.
Even condoms, that protect against AIDS and STDs, are easier to obtain but most men resist them. Furthermore, many of the men believe that more children are a proud sign of verity, or the state of being true.
The Pill is 50 years old in the U.S., this month. And some parts of Africa are still completely unaware of this. It would cost around $4 billion to provide contraception to women around the world, according to an important study that was published in 2009. Four billion is what the U.S. spends every two weeks on our military in Afghanistan. If women in poor countries, around the world were properly educated about and provided contraception, millions of unwanted births, unplanned births and abortions would be eliminated.