The Deacon's Bench
It was part of an interview broadcast Tuesday night as part of the TED conference in Canada.
From The Vancouver Sun:
Melinda Gates also talked about the personal wrestle she had as a Roman Catholic over her decision to help fund contraceptives for women in developing countries.
Condoms may be useful for stopping transmittable diseases, but women can’t convince their husbands to use them for planning families, she said.
“Women will tell you I can’t negotiate condoms with my husband. I am either suggesting he has AIDS or I have AIDS,” she said.
“We have backed away from contraceptives as a global community. We knew that 210 million women were saying they wanted access to contraceptives. And we weren’t providing them because of the political controversy in our country,” Melinda Gates said.
“And to me, that was just a crime. I kept looking around trying to find the person who would get this back on the global stage and I finally realized I had to do it. And even though I am Catholic I believe in contraceptives, just like the majority of Catholic women in the United States who report using contraceptives, and I shouldn’t let that controversy be the thing that holds us back.”
As a result, she was able to raise $2.6 billion to help provide contraceptives for women in developing nations.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In