When dealing with a multifaceted issue like foreign aid it is vital to have a coherent mission that guides how funds are allocated. One must be prepared to answer fundamental questions such as, “What is the purpose of giving aid,” and “Why do we give the things we do to foreign populations?” When it comes to the funding of contraceptives, why indeed do organizations distribute them to foreign and often low-income countries?
USAID and the State Department allocated around US $632 million in foreign aid to fund family planning and contraceptives. More is spent on family planning and contraception than nutrition, and the same is true when you compare funding for contraception and family planning to funding for hygiene and sanitation. What is the logic behind this? Organizations supporting this distribution of funds would likely claim that contraception and family planning prevents overpopulation and reduces poverty as a result. However, is the problem overpopulation or a lack of resources to support that population? Clearly the problem is that there are not enough resources to meet the demands of people. However, organizations supporting population control initiatives seem to think the opposite. According to them it is more important to reduce the number of mouths to feed than to find food for those mouths that are here and will soon arrive.
By allocating such a large amount of foreign aid to family planning and contraception we ignore the purpose of giving aid in the first place: to help those people who are less fortunate. Instead we in the United States and other “highly developed” nations comfortably use many times more resources than the average person in a country we are trying to “help.” Our policy of coercing these low-income countries into accepting birth control measures not only deprives them of children but it deprives them of other resources vital to survival. Jesus once asked, “Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone?” Is this not what USAID and the state Department are doing by trading food for birth control?
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