The cost of unwanted children – 2/6/2023 – Michael França

Family planning is a term that has gone out of fashion in some countries. There was an association with coercive population controls. In its place, phrases such as “sexual and reproductive health” and “voluntary family planning” began to be used. It makes sense. This is a sensitive topic. Many are not willing to treat it with the depth it deserves.

You need to be relatively careful in how you express yourself on the subject and a dash of courage. Despite this, there are some numbers that allow us to objectively state that there is still considerable neglect of women’s reproductive health in Brazil. Especially the poorest.

In 1991, while high-income women had a fertility rate of about 1.2, that number among low-income women was 5.5. Progress has been made in recent decades. However, insufficient to ensure that all have secured their reproductive rights. In 2015, the fertility rate for women in the top income quintile dropped to 2.9. However, it continued to be higher than the 0.77 observed among women with higher incomes. Many of these pregnancies were unplanned. Several were unwanted.

A 2009 report from the National Survey of Demographics and Child and Women’s Health showed that 46% of pregnancies were unplanned. Approximately 18% were unwanted. Among teenagers, the picture was worse. In 2006, according to a study by the United Nations Population Fund, around 60% of girls did not wish they had become pregnant.

Unwanted children bring several consequences for the development not only of the child but of the whole family. Usually they are not treated well by their parents. These children tend to suffer greater trauma from their families and a high psychological impact with the lack of acceptance. Several of them end up in the world of crime. Others begin to engage in self-destructive behavior.

And, to complement the hostile scenario, unwanted pregnancies also imply miscarriages, whether spontaneous or not, stillbirths and infant and maternal deaths.

Thousands of families do not have access to safe ways to avoid unwanted children. This fact reduces the possibilities for them to build a better life. Each additional child affects the chances not only of disadvantaged parents to achieve better socioeconomic conditions, but also of each family member.

Access to comprehensive sex education and contraception helps to reduce teenage pregnancies and, as a result, more girls and boys stay in school. Each additional year that young people study tends to substantially increase their earnings.

Additionally, the accumulated experience and knowledge can be reflected in a better future fatherhood and motherhood. Thus, your eventual children will have greater opportunities to prosper. This helps not only the family but the economy.

Brazilian social mobility is very low. The higher fertility rate among the poorest women, in conjunction with the fact that they have younger children, tends to be reflected, in the absence of policies that promote better opportunities, in a higher growth rate for the poorest.

Thus, although, in certain aspects, family planning is still a shamefully backward topic and little discussed in various corners of Brazil, moving forward on the agenda represents a welcome start for any government that wants to face one of the means that contribute to the structural reproduction of poverty.

_{This text is a tribute to the song “Força Estranha”, by Caetano Veloso, performed by Gal Costa.}

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