Cheaper, Better Female Condoms

Bringing unwanted children into the world through negligence and lust is unforgivable. There’s a more than sufficient quota of human misery already. Perhaps the new and inexpensive prophylactics for women will help reduce unwanted pregnancies.

With billions of male condoms in circulation, why are female condoms such a big deal? For starters, women are generally more responsible about birth control than men are. Even in the United States, 10 percent of women who end up getting abortions because they neglected contraception say their partners objected to using protection. I haven’t checked the data lately, but I assure you that overseas the problem is even bigger. The more we take this decision away from men and give it to women, the more unintended pregnancies we’ll prevent. That’s the first thing female condoms do. They “put the power of protection in women’s hands,” says the Female Health Company. The director of the Center for Health and Gender Equity agrees that these condoms give “women another option in negotiating safer sex with their partners or husbands.”

William Saletan, Slate: Female Condoms