Cindy Anderson had an insightful response to my recent post on Planned Parenthood and federal funding. On her blog, The Write Reason, she suggested a third alternative to the battle.
“The culture in many African countries would not allow women to abstain from sex and it would even be more difficult to persuade a husband or male partner to wear a condom. The female condom might work. Many girls are given to older men and while they might want to be protected or even abstain from intercourse their voices are never heard.
While we are funding groups like Planned Parenthood it seems the money might be better spent on educating against misogynist male cultural ideologies where the subordination of women to men should be unthinkable. Until women can speak for themselves and run their own lives they and their children will suffer the most from the AIDS epidemic. While our government and Planned Parenthood may have good intentions they are both missing the point. The best solution to end the AIDS epidemic is likely to come through educating men and women to see one another as equals.”
