Martha Plimpton Quotes

… the lack of access to basic family planning services and information undermines a woman’s ability to determine her own destiny. It also increases illness and mortality rates of women and their children, and inhibits the ability of families to climb out of poverty.

Birth-control is effecting, and promising to effect, many functions in our social life.

Abortion politics have distracted all sides from what is really essential: a major aid campaign to improve midwifery, prenatal care and emergency obstetric services in poor countries.

In a country [India] where every five minutes a pregnant woman dies, the pill could be the answer.

When contraceptive services are not available to women throughout the world, abortion rates increase.

Give special attention to the mothers' health, to see that women who are suffering from tuberculosis, heart or kidney disease, toxic goitre, gonorrhea, or any disease where the condition of pregnancy disturbs their health are placed under public health nurses to instruct them in practical, scientific methods of contraception in order to safeguard their lives---thus reducing maternal mortality

Healthy moms mean healthy families. When my Republican colleagues held a hearing about birth control and refused to include a single woman on the first panel as a witness, I asked, "Where are the women?"

I resolved that women should have knowledge of contraception. They have every right to know about their own bodies. I would strikeout--I would scream from the housetops. I would tell the world what was going on in the lives of these poor women. I would be heard. No matter what it should cost. I would be heard.

The truth is women use contraception not only as a way to prevent unintended pregnancies, but also to improve their health and the health of their families. Increased access to contraception is directly linked to declines in maternal and infant mortality.

I used to think it a pity that her mother rather than she had not thought of birth control.

Empowering women by allowing them to choose when and how many children to have is not only the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do.

For most women, including women who want to have children, contraception is not an option; it is a basic health care necessity.

As the largest contributor to the United Nations and funder of international family planning, the U.S. is in a unique position to continue to lead the global agenda and place reproductive health at its core.

World fertility surveys indicate that anywhere from one third to one half of the babies born in the Third World would not be if their mothers had access to cheap, reliable family planning, had enough personal empowerment to stand up to their husbands and relatives, and could choose their own family size.

Women around the world should have a tool that helps them plan their pregnancies.

One year they asked me to be poster boy - for birth control.

By improving health, empowering women, population growth comes down.

In order to stabilize human population growth, we must prioritize the education of girls, the empowerment of women, the provision of ubiquitous access to the knowledge and techniques of fertility management, and the continued raising of child survival rates.

Whenever I hear people discussing birth control, I always remember that I was the fifth.

Family planning campaigns should be increased so that the sizes of families are manageable and enjoy the best possible standard of living.

Contraceptives unlock one of the most dormant but potentially powerful assets in development: women as decision makers.

I want to help put women at the center of global health and development work, and better contraceptives are one of their top priorities. Listening to women shouldn’t be a revolutionary idea in 2012, but it is.

If you want to control human reproduction you have to control women’s bodies.

Governments must act and private citizens cooperate urgently through voluntary means to secure this right [of birth control programs] for all people. Failure would limit the expectation of future generations to abject poverty and suffering and bring down upon us history's condemnation.

I will continue to work to maintain Planned Parenthood's ability to provide excellent health care to millions of women.