JONATHAN EIG
Cost of the pill is only one factor responsible for the difference. Even in situations where birth control pills have been provided for free, there has been a slow acceptance and use rate among the poor and developing women. The other factors are resistance to change of any kind, cultural traditions, women tending to make no decisions without the husband’s OK, religious taboos where the affluent tend to ignore religious strictures when they interfere with desired lifestyle, while the poor tend to be more obedient, and most of all the sad fact that children are a woman’s social safety net in developing countries that do not yet have one built into the body politic.
Jonathan Eig is an American journalist and biographer and the author of five books. His most recent book, Ali: A Life, is a biography of Muhammad Ali.
