Another Birth Control Device: Your Television

Here's something the pope should definitely mention in his next encyclical:

Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Health and Family Welfare Minister, has called for the country to redouble its efforts to bring electricity to all of its huge rural population. The introduction of the electric light and television sets to those vast areas that still did not have them would discourage procreation, he argued. “If there is electricity in every village, then people will watch TV till late at night and then fall asleep. They won’t get a chance to produce children,” Mr Azad said. “When there is no electricity there is nothing else to do but produce babies.” He added: “Don’t think that I am saying this in a lighter vein. I am serious. TV will have a great impact. It’s a great medium to tackle the problem . . . 80 per cent of population growth can be reduced through TV.” India’s population has trebled since independence in 1947 to about 1.2 billion after an agricultural revolution, which helped to banish famine, and developmental progress extended life expectancy. The country, whose population is growing by about 1.6 per cent a year, accounts for about 17 per cent of the world’s people but occupies less than 3 per cent of its land area. India’s population is expected to exceed that of China in the next 20 years and experts are warning of violent internal conflicts over resources unless urgent action is taken.

Female Condoms and Abortion

Liberals want fewer unintended pregnancies and more empowerment for women. 

Conservatives want fewer abortions. 

Everybody wants to reduce HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. 

We can keep yapping about these things, or we can do something constructive.

Here's something constructive: female condoms. If you don't know what they are, read about them here, here, and here.

The Roman Catholic Church has consistently condemned abortion — the direct and purposeful taking of the life of the unborn child. In principle, Catholic Christians believe that all life is sacred from conception until natural death, and the taking of innocent human life, whether born or unborn, is morally wrong. 

The Church teaches, "Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains for ever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. 

God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being" ("Donum vitae," 5).

During a pro-life rally on March 29 outside the Cathedral of Sao Paulo in Brazil, Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer announced to the more than 5,000 people gathered that "abortion is a defeat for medicine."

After explaining to his audience that "the health of women who are raped can be recovered through medicine," the cardinal pointed out that "abortion is a radical attack against life. The Church supports everything that is done to save life. Abortion is a defeat for medicine."