Melinda Gates challenges Vatican by vowing to improve contraception

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Melinda Gates challenges Vatican by vowing to improve contraception

Joanna Moorhead
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 11 July 2012 12.59 BST

The billionaire philanthropist Melinda Gates, a practising Catholic, has thrown down the gauntlet to the Vatican and vowed to dedicate the rest of her life to improving access to contraception across the globe.

Gates, who with her husband, Bill, the founder of Microsoft, is one of the world's biggest players on development issues, predicted that women in Africa and Asia would soon be "voting with their feet", as women in the west have done, and would ignore the church's ban on artificial birth control.

Gates, who was a speaker at the London Summit on Family Planning organised by her foundation in conjunction with the UK government and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said that since she announced her new direction a few weeks ago she had been inundated with messages of support from Catholic women, including nuns.

"A church is made up of its members, and one of the things this campaign might do is help women speak out. I've had thousands of women come on to websites and say" 'I'm a Catholic, but I believe in contraception.' It's going to be women voting with their feet."

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Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/11/melinda-gates-challenges-vatican-contraception

[get the red out]

1. We need more of THIS

And less cowering in fear of the plump, pasty guys in pretty robes.

[Ilsa]

2. Good. And she needs to spread this

"doctrine" to younger women who follow her, namely students at the Ursaline Academy in Dallas and any other religious group she visits. I hope younger Catholics take her seriously about how important it is to practice family planning.

I wonder if the RCC would change their message if they knew they could up their receipts if women are more prosperous because they use contraception. (NFP doesn't count. Not all women have the perfect scenario for this.)

[cbayer]

3. Go Melinda! Keep talking, particularly to young catholic girls.