This TED Talk is by [[Melinda Gates]], and deals with contraception as giving women and couples choices, pointing out their measurable impact on lifting up families and even countries from poverty. And although the video is not about politics, the implications are real as I interpret them. Read between the lines as I have and I think the case is strong.
She advocates a bottom-up approach where although availability is a society-wide problem that governments could address, it is ultimately on the family level that change can be and in fact is made. It is about personal choice, not collective will. She gives many examples of where governmental measures and policies violated women’s rights, even at times where such mesaures were unecessary because the trends in society toward smaller, deliberate families was growing.
I see this as yet another example of where government becomes the heavy handed tool of “The People”, forgetting that if a majority is pushing for change, society is already in motion and therefore does not need it. For example, by the time civil rights became “law”, the real progress had already been made. Government becomes the “cleanup” tool of the rest, and in the case of forced or covert sterilizations (yes, it’s part of our American history), such things are a double-edged sword indeed. If government is entrusted to solve a problem, it is equally empowered to do proportionate evil.