effects of heretical 1970s nuns

[Geremia]

Melinda Gates's Let's put birth control back on the agenda TED talk

Some people think when we talk about contraception that it's code for abortion, which it's not.

Contraception leads to abortion, and some contraceptives can also act as abortifacients. 

Some people worry that the real goal of family planning is to control populations. These are all side issues

Women in Africa will tell you over and over again that what they prefer today is an injectable. They get it in their arm -- and they go about four times a year, they have to get it every three months -- to get their injection. The reason women like it so much in Africa is they can hide it from their husbands

No wonder they lace HCG (which acts contraceptively in non-pregnant women) into vaccines.

...we have to be really clear about what our agenda is. We're not talking about abortion. We're not talking about population control.

When I grew up, I grew up in a Catholic home. I still [have the audacity to] consider myself a practicing Catholic. My mom's great-uncle was a Jesuit priest. My great-aunt was a Dominican nun. She was a schoolteacher and a principal her entire life. In fact, she's the one who taught me as a young girl how to read. I was very close to her. And I went to Catholic schools for my entire childhood until I left home to go to university. In my high school, Ursuline Academy, the [mid-1970s] nuns made service and social justice [!] a high priority in the school. Today, in the [Gates] Foundation's work, I believe I'm applying the lessons that I learned in high school. So, in the tradition of Catholic scholars, the [heretic] nuns also taught us to question received teachings. And one of the teachings that we girls and my peers questioned was is birth control really a sin? Because I think one of the reasons we have this huge discomfort talking about contraception is this lingering concern that if we separate sex from reproduction, we're going to promote promiscuity. And I think that's a reasonable question to be asked about contraception: What is its impact on sexual morality? But, like most women, my decision about birth control had nothing to do with promiscuity. I had a plan for my future. I wanted to go to college.

...sex is absolutely sacred. And it's sacred in Germany, and it's sacred in the United States, and it's sacred in France and so many [not all?] places around the world. And the fact that 98 percent of women in my country who are sexually experienced say they use birth control doesn't make sex any less sacred.

...the nuns who taught me were incredibly progressive [i.e., heretical]. I hope that they'll be very proud of me for living out what they taught us about social justice [!] and service.

[Geremia]

transcript:

[Bill] MOYERS: But did you come to reproductive issues as an intellectual, philosophical pursuit? Or was there something that happened? Did come up on... was there a revelation?
[Bill] GATES: When I was growing up, my parents were almost involved in various volunteer things. My dad was head of Planned Parenthood. And it was very controversial to be involved with that. And so it's fascinating. At the dinner table my parents are very good at sharing the things that they were doing. And almost treating us like adults, talking about that.
My mom was on the [Judeo-Freemasonic] United Way group that decides how to allocate the money and looks at all the different charities and makes the very hard decisions about where that pool of funds is going to go. So I always knew there was something about really educating people and giving them choices in terms of family size.