Nancy L. Johnson: “Study after study and the experience of nation after nation has demonstrated that the more knowledge women have of how…”

“Study after study and the experience of nation after nation has demonstrated that the more knowledge women have of how to control their reproductive capability, the more the abortion rate declines. We have seen this in spades in Russia and in countries around the world. Give women the knowledge they need to assume their family planning responsibilities, and they do not have abortions. So why would you want to deny the women of Haiti $2.8 million in family planning funds and all of the women's health that accompanies these funds, all of the education women gain about how to care for themselves, how to have healthy babies as opposed to unhealthy babies, how to have safe deliveries, how to recover postpartum? Why would you want to deny the women of Nicaragua $1.1 million in women's healthcare and in safe pregnancies? Why would you want to deny the women of El Salvador $600,000? Nigeria, a country in which there is terrible starvation, terrible deprivation, women get terrible healthcare and children die of hunger routinely, why would you want to deny the women of Nigeria $5.3 million so they could have the knowledge to handle their reproductive capabilities responsibly, plan their families so their children are spaced far enough apart, so their children survive and they survive to care for their children? Why would you want to deny the women of Pakistan $4.1 million, India $13 million, and so on?”