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Mexico City Policy Essay

Decent Essays

If a health clinic providing basic services to the world’s most vulnerable people is withheld the large amount of foreign assistance that currently comes from the United States government, all diseases will flourish, including epidemics such as Zika and Ebola (Barry-Jester, 2016). We contribute to more unstable political environments (Crimm, 2007, p.615) and more refugees that we increasingly refuse to help when we take away aid that would countries meet the needs of their citizens.
The Mexico City Policy affects the rate and prevalence of HIV/AIDS in a community (AIDS and abortion policy, 2003). While HIV/AIDS spreads throughout communities, women are disproportionately burdened with the disease (Gruskin, Roseman, and Ferguson, p.72, 2007). The gender roles in society often mean that women …show more content…

If a family loses a family member due to inadequate health care, an unsafe abortion, it can affect the family’s financial stability if she was a breadwinner, if there is no one else to care for children, and/or if the family is burdened with health care or funeral costs (Harman, 2016, p.526). If the lack of family planning options, such as birth control, results in more children than a family can support, not only do their finances suffer, but their overall socio-economic status, including nutrition, education, and health declines (Guttmacher, 2012).
It has been shown that there is a positive correlation between family planning and a woman’s level of schooling and lower fertility rates (Joshi & Schultz, 2013, p.161). Hypotheses for the decline in fertility rates are both that higher educated women may have more skills to assess and seek out contraception, as well as the ability to choose employment over having children (Joshi & Schultz, 2013, p.161). They also may simply be unable to attend school pregnant or must drop out to care for their children (HIV Prevalence, 2010,

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