Bill and Melinda ain't all that

[ensho]

http://www.truth-out.org/health-inequality-gates-foundation-bans-abortion62975


Health Inequality: Gates Foundation Bans Abortion


Melinda French Gates, philanthropist, co-founder and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was greeted with great applause on the first day of the Women Deliver conference in Washington, D.C. earlier this summer. But the hand clapping was temporary. As a reproductive health advocate, I was not the only one who began to raise questions about her comments and her foundation's capacity to set the worldwide agenda for global health priorities. Gates announced that the foundation with her name on it, known for its important work on the prevention of poverty and the development of vaccines for HIV/AIDS and malaria, will designate $1.5 billion over the next five years to assist developing nations with integrated women's health care services.

She explained that this new priority will add to the empowerment, education and equality of women and girls. She described the services: nutrition, pre- and post-natal care, infant care, the training of women's health workers and obstetrical services.

-snip-

This is so despite the fact that access to safe abortion was one of "three core strategies to save women's lives" on the agenda of the Women Deliver conference, which was titled Invest in Women. It Pays. In attendance were 3,500 advocates from 140 countries. The goal was to seek out strategies to prevent maternal mortality so that "no person should die giving life." It's critical to note that if you believe in investing in women and girls, no woman or girl should ever die preventing life either. The statistics are stark: approximately 350,000 women lose their lives each year giving birth, from childbirth complications and injuries, and from illegal and unsafe abortions. All are preventable tragedies.

-snip-

As reported in 2006 in the public health journal, The Lancet, abortion is "a pandemic -- an urgent public health and human rights imperative." Nearly 68,000 women and girls die as a result of botched abortions -- this is 13 percent of all maternal deaths. Twenty times that number of women and girls will experience abortion-related complications that threaten their lives.

-snip-

*****
So why is the Gates Foundation ignoring the abortion care needs of women?

When asked on NPR by reporter Michele Norris, Melinda Gates said, "We don't want to be part of the controversy."
*****

-snip-

But the power and influence of the foundation go further. Because of its prestige, size and assets, the foundation is central to "setting the sexual and reproductive health and rights agenda around the world," in the words of policy researcher and writer Brook Elliott-Buettner in Gender Across Borders.
-snip-
------------------------------


the article ends with this:

"The Gates Foundation has chosen to sweep abortion off the charts of women's health and lives. And that is yet another crime against women."

rich people should not have the right to bully the world to do things their way.
this must mean the Gates are religiously insane.

[madmom]

1. If they "don't want to be part of the controversy.", shouldn't they let the doctors and women

decide then?

[stray cat]

2. Oh no! They are not perfectly in sync with all DUers?

[katandmoon]

So you have a choice to support women's health or the oligarch - and you go with the oligarth.

[SammyWinstonJack]

32. Shocking isn't it?

:evilgrin:

[area51]

3. How 'bout they help out with health care in the country which made them rich?

Each day, 273 people die due to lack of health care in the U.S.; that's 100,000 deaths per year.

We need single-payer health care, not a welfare bailout for the serial-killer insurance agencies.

We don't need the GingrichCare of mandated, unregulated, for-profit insurance that is still too expensive, only pays parts of medical bills, denies claims, and bankrupts people. Republinazi '93 plan:

"Subtitle F: Universal Coverage - Requires each citizen or lawful permanent resident to be covered under a qualified health plan or equivalent health care program by January 1, 2005."

"We will never have real reform until people's health stops being treated as a financial opportunity for corporations."

[mzteris]

33. in 2008, nine million children under age 5 died

Gates philosophy in his health initiatives:

. . . the needs of the poor are greater than the resources available to help them solve their problems. It is important to get more money, but that alone will not solve the big problems. This is why Melinda and I are such big believers in innovations that allow you to do a lot more for the same cost.
During the last two centuries, there have been a huge number of innovations that have fundamentally changed the human condition—more than doubling our life span and giving us cheap energy and more food. Society underinvests in innovation in general but particularly in two important areas. One area is innovations that would mostly benefit poor people—there is too little investment here because the poor can’t generate a market demand.

. . . With vaccines, drugs, and other improvements, health in poor countries will continue to get better, and people will choose to have smaller families. With better seeds, training, and access to markets, farmers in poor countries will be able to grow more food. The world will find clean ways to produce electricity at a lower cost, and more people will lift themselves out of poverty.

Although innovation is unpredictable, there is a lot that governments, private companies, and foundations can do to accelerate it. Rich governments need to spend more on research and development, for instance, and we need better measurement systems in health and education to determine what works.

. . . Melinda and I see our foundation’s key role as investing in innovations that would not otherwise be funded. This draws not only on our backgrounds in technology but also on the foundation’s size and ability to take a long-term view and take large risks on new approaches.

. . . Our framework involves funding a range of ideas with different levels of risk that they could fail. The ones with low risk are where the innovation has been proven at a small scale and the challenge is to scale up the delivery. High-risk innovations require the invention of new tools. Some are at the frontiers of science, such as finding a new drug and running a large trial to see how well it works. Other high-risk efforts involve changing social practices, such as persuading men at risk of getting HIV to get circumcised. http://www.gatesfoundation.org/annual-letter/2010/Pages/investment-in-innovations.aspx

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Not bad for a man who sold the Ford Pinto of software for decades

and used it to put the camaros and mustangs of software out of business.

[KansasVoter]

5. LOL...bullshit! You Gates haters are just jealous!

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. 010010101 100110111 000000111 111101011 n/t

[KansasVoter]

8. OK.....

0100101101101001011100110111001100100000010011010111100100100000010000010111001101110011

[HysteryDiagnosis]

24. Well, I for one don't approve of some of their actions in the past, your

mileage may vary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAKEY
Microsoft denies that the NSA has access to the _NSAKEY secret key.

The key is still present in subsequent versions of Windows, though it has been renamed "_KEY2."

It is possible to remove the second _NSAKEY using the following.

There is good news among the bad, however. It turns out that there is a flaw in the way the "crypto_verify" function is implemented. Because of the way the crypto verification occurs, users can easily eliminate or replace the NSA key from the operating system without modifying any of Microsoft's original components. Since the NSA key is easily replaced, it means that non-US companies are free to install "strong" crypto services into Windows, without Microsoft's or the NSA's approval. Thus the NSA has effectively removed export control of "strong" crypto from Windows. A demonstration program that replaces the NSA key can be found on Cryptonym's website.<7>

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. Bill the college dropout wants to reform education

Now he thinks he can reform women's health.

[KansasVoter]

9. So he spends 1.5 billion on a good cause but not what some thinks he should spend it on!

So that makes him evil. LOL.....the hate for a guy donating billions here is worse than the hate for billionaires who do nothing.

[katandmoon]

14. Yes, the Koch brothers are so revered here.

[KansasVoter]

15. I see as many anti-gate posts as anti-koch ones. It should be 20-1

[ensho]

19. you left out something - the women, us women, our sisters in Africa

the women are held hostage to the Gate's religious views. they say they don't want to be part of the problem. that's just a front to hide their religious insanity.

[mzteris]

35. you're totally off-base - they are NOT "anti-abortionists"

I disagree with their decision not to include abortions, but I understand their logic.

Just because you disagree with them is no reason to perpetuate a lie against the man.

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. So did the Kochs

Will you be praising them next?

[KansasVoter]

39. You are irrational based on one experience with Gates and computers. I forgive you.

[Upton]

10. I guess giving 1.5 billion isn't enough for some..

now Gates and his wife have to pass some sort of purity test.. :eyes:

[katandmoon]

12. No, they are immensely rich and powerful. So they are utterly above criticism.

:sarcasm:

[KansasVoter]

16. It is a joke. Gates gives Billions to good causes and people hate him here.

[Upton]

23. Doesn't make much sense does it?

[Curmudgeoness]

25. And they are buying the stairway to heaven. So they think.

Gates got all his money by putting his foot on the throats of all competitors, ripping off all his customers, and making it impossible to have choices in how our computers are run. He is the same as the "philanthropists" of former times, who made all their money on the backs of poorly paid workers who were used and thrown away, then they wanted everyone to praise them for throwing a little of their money at a park or a library.

Yes, it is better that they give some of their money to good causes than not, but that doesn't mean we should all bow to them.

[proud2BlibKansan]

31. Are you related to Bill or something?

Your defense seems odd. I looked up his political contributions. He has given large sums of money to Mitch McConnell, Mike Pence, Orrin Hatch, Bob Bennett and a bunch of other nasty GOPers. Why are we supporting him on a DEMOCRATIC discussion board?

[Upton]

34. Gates has also given money

to Schumer, Pelosi, Inslee, Leahy and Murray among others. In fact, through Feb. of this year, 54.13% of his donations have gone to Democrats.

Maybe that's one of the reasons he gets support on a Democratic discussion board.

[mzteris]

36. it shouldn't matter - the level of good that has been done

worldwide due to his foundation is what should be important.

But again, the "i didn't get my pony" crowd will vilify anyone who doesn't espouse their pet POV on any ONE GD ISSUE!

[proud2BlibKansan]

38. So he's bipartisan

One more reason I dislike him. How any thinking person can want to give even a dime to the party of NO is a mystery to me.

[ensho]

20. its called a 'sanity test' the Gates failed

they are religiously insane

[Name removed]

37. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mzteris]

40. that is a lie - they are not anti-abortionist

please stick to facts and not outrageous bs...

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. So money buys respect?

Shit, Is this even DU anymore? Some days it's hard to tell.

[Donnachaidh]

42. giving up? Yeah, like they didn't get an equal TAX BENEFIT for that amount

SUCH a struggle for them to write off that amount! :rofl:

[haele]

11. I don't think they're religiously insane - I think they are either social cowards -

looking to keep their co-backers, or they don't see a health reason for keeping abortion services available.
Frankly, they're from a social background where abortions only happen to "bad girls" where there's no contraceptives and they don't want to go through the effort to raise or adopt the baby out to or if it's an inconvenient time to have a kid.
Married women in their class generally don't need to have abortions due to health because of the range of medical care available to them, so in a way, for the most part an abortion is a choice as much as deciding what school to send the kids to or if they want to keep the nanny or not for another couple years.

So, if the foundation "stays out of the controversy" or sweeps it under the rug, claiming that abortion is not really a health issue and contraceptives and adoption services are all women really need, then in their mind, there's no need to discuss abortion when discussing "real" women's health care.

I think they're just clueless or willfully ignorant - and a bit cowardly. Their foundation has to be the good guy in the eyes of the world, and currently, most of the western world has issues dealing with reproduction issues (i.e. unless it's deviant, having sex is a "choice" by the woman and the man for the act itself and children are the natural outcome of that act when no contraceptive is used)- and the western world currently is the dominant culture most others strive either to be like or to react against.

Haele

[iamjoy]

18. They Are Pragmatic

I think the Gateses are well aware of the poverty the people they are trying to help face.

But, they know that by addressing abortion, they could harm their foundation's ability to raise money. Rather than blaming Bill and Melinda for this, we should take a look at ourselves. To me, this seems to indicate that those of us who are Pro-Choice are letting the Anti-Choice zealots dominate the debate. Here is Melinda's quote:

We don't want to be part of the controversy

So, let's think about that statement, and what it means. Funding abortion invites controversy. By not helping women have access to safe abortions, one avoids controversy. We need to change that dynamic. We need to show it's just as controversial to deny women access to life saving treatment. We do not do this by calling people who are trying to do good cowards, or otherwise insulting them. But we do call attention to the shortcomings of their program. We do point out that no maternal and infant healthcare program is complete unless it includes comprehensive family planning and access to safe, affordable abortion. We do point out that we cannot have full equal rights for women unless they can determine if and when they have children.

[ensho]

21. I feel the need to insult them - openingly and loudly

nt

[Brickbat]

13. I have never, ever supported the philosophy behind their philanthropy.

[ibegurpard]

17. they're spearheading public school privatization

that's enough to make them villains in my book

[ensho]

22. ditto

nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

29. double ditto

[mzteris]

26. Oh look - the opposite complaint:

Bill Gates Funding Of Abortion Reveals Him To Be Liar When He Says “All Lives” Have “Equal Value”

Gates: When I was growing up, my parents were almost involved in various volunteer things. My dad was head of Planned Parenthood. And it was very controversial to be involved with that. And so it’s fascinating. At the dinner table my parents are very good at sharing the things that they were doing. And almost treating us like adults, talking about that. My mom was on the United Way group that decides how to allocate the money and looks at all the different charities and makes the very hard decisions about where that pool of funds is going to go. So I always knew there was something about really educating people and giving them choices in terms of family size.

When I put the word “abortion” into the search engine on the Web page of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, it turned up two references, one of which I could not get. The reference I could get was to an April, 2000, $8 Million Grant to “Family Care International” to “Improve Women’s Health.” It says that among the things “FCI” is addressing around the world is “unsafe abortion.” Unsafe abortion?! That’s right. “FCI” is trying to make abortion “safe.” But “safe” for whom? Certainly not the unborn baby who is murdered by abortion.

In a press conference announcing Buffett’s $31 billion gift to his Foundation, Bill Gates said it was “almost scary” to get so much money from somebody else because “if I make a mistake with my own money, it just doesn’t feel the same as to make a mistake with Warren’s money.” But, what’s really scary is that these billionaires see nothing wrong with murdering innocent, unborn children by abortion.

http://www.theamericanview.com/index.php?id=648

[mzteris]

30. avoiding the controversy for this organization -

and their rationale behind it (I don't agree with their decision, but I understand their logic - and "this" part of the statement is too important to lose sight of):

"The foundation specifically doesn't take a stance on abortion for exactly this reason, is we don't want to be part of the controversy . . ," said Gates. "We're much more trying to work upstream on reproductive health rights. If you work upstream on that, and you say to a woman today, you know, would you like to have an injection that you could come in once a month or an implant where you came in once every three years, and you give them the choices or the different tools, then you don't even have to get into the issue of abortion downstream. So we have 200 million women that can't even get the tools they need to plan their family. We have that problem to solve first."

In other words: fund the underlying issues that create the problem, and preempt the problem.


******

meanwhile - the right accuses him of engaging in "eugenics" for supporting Planned parenthood and the UN Population Fund. . . and they suspect his "family planning" of including a secret plan of abortions anyway. . .

[Odin2005]

41. Bill Gates the Misogynist Pig

There is no such thing as "staying out of the controversy", you either supports women's rights or you are a fucking BIGOT.