Does Choice Matter?

For more than 55 years, Pathfinder International has worked to expand access to quality sexual and reproductive health care to enable and empower individuals to make choices about their body and their future. 

At Pathfinder, they believe choice is everything. When people take charge of their life choices such as if or when and how often to have children, they gain confidence and strength. They can better pursue their education, contribute to the local economy, and engage in their communities. 

Pathfinder International has a new video to share:



No Joke. Choice Matters. Everywhere. 

The video is funny, but the circumstances are not. More than 220 million women still lack access to contraceptives.
 

Can you imagine walking 18 miles to get contraceptives? Or being told your clinic is out of stock? It seems absurd right? But in many countries, this happens every day. Doctors are overworked, under supported, and stressed out. Women struggle to care for their large families and access the services they need, sometimes waiting hours, even overnight to visit a clinic.

We try to make it funny in this video but the reality is no joke. Choice matters about if, when, and how often to have children; choice matters about getting tested for and STI or HIV; choice about sexual and reproductive health matters for all women, everywhere.
 

Even here in the United States, we see barriers to reproductive choice. However, oftentimes those barriers are even more challenging in developing countries. Shannon Wu, one of our donors said, “Most women in America have access to knowledge and health care when it comes to their sexual and reproductive life. But in other parts of the world, women’s health is almost always the last thing to be discussed or taken care of, if at all.”

Right now more than 220 million women want, but lack access to contraceptives. One woman dies every 90 seconds during pregnancy or childbirth because she lacks access to maternal care. And HIV is the number one cause of death for women of reproductive age in the developing world.

If you want to change these numbers, and improve the lives of women, take a simple action now: share the video. Help start an important conversation with your friends, family, girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, wives, colleagues that reproductive health care is no joke. 

Choice matters. 

Want to help Pathfinder International spread the word? 

Sample Tweets or Posts:

• Do you know anyone who has waited an entire day in for #reprohealth appt? It happens in many countries WATCH: http://pathfinder.org/notfunny
• Do u agree ALL women deserve access to #contraception?  Watch video to see barriers many women face. http://pathfinder.org/notfunny #ChoiceMatters
• Around the world women face barriers to basic #familyplanning VIDEO http://pathfinder.org/notfunny Let’s remove barriers! #ChoiceMatters