Abortion,Family Planning,Street Children

In certain impoverished places in the world, every effort has been made to deny women access to safe birth control. Abortion is illegal, and is not under consideration for legalization. By denying women access to family planning, not abortion, the result is that the number of abortions, though illegal, increase. Desperate women that do not want to have the child that safe birth control would have prevented are having illegal abortions that often put their lives at risk. The policies and doctrines that are preventing safe family planning for women, safe family planning that has nothing to do with abortion, are paradoxically increasing abortion rates and definitely not respecting the sanctity of either the women's life or her unborn child. For the millions of now homeless, desperate children living on the streets all over the third world, it cannot be claimed that the sanctity of their lives is respected. No child should be living on the streets anywhere. These children are malnourished, living in conditions of utter squalor and degradation, in addition to being highly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Preventing safe family planning means the spread of disease, more children living on the streets of deeply impoverished, often overpopulated places, more abortions, legal or illegal,and a certain guarantee of lives of extreme poverty for millions. The negative environmental impact of unchecked population growth is enormous. It is not without reason that in countries like Japan, Norway, Taiwan, family sizes are small, the standard of living is high, and the opportunities for an education and future abundant. The sanctity of life has to have meaning. It cannot end with the birth of a child. Ignoring the fact that already there are countless millions of children living on the streets all over the world and also being unwilling to reconsider policies and doctrines is not consistent with truly respecting the sanctity of life. Regarding these children, some will argue about the wonderful things some charity or religion is doing. We can acknowledge the good works of these entities, even though the money they are spending originates from their followers, not them, and that this is what they should be doing. But this does nothing to address the miserable lives that millions already face and the simple fact that all the existing charities and religions in the world are not, and never have been, the safety net or capable of helping hundreds of millions of lives( even if they were completely effective, which they are not). Simply making responsible family planning available will lower abortion rates, reduce disease and save lives, help the environment, and reduce poverty.