VOA标准英语2011--Former Irish President says Family Planning Saves Women’s Lives
时间:2019-01-14 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2011年(十月)
Former Irish President says Family Planning Saves Women’s Lives
Proponents 1 of family planning services say each year, nearly 360,000 women die from pregnancy 2-related causes, most of them in Africa. The former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, is helping 3 lead a campaign for greater access to those services in developing countries. Robinson is now chair of the Aspen Institute’s Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health.
“It means that you have healthy families. You have more possibilities that children, both boys and girls, will go to school because the mother will have time or motivation to make sure they have the best chances, which is what every mother wants for their children if they’re not absolutely exhausted 4 and overcome by the problems of too many with too little food,” she said.
In the long run, she said, reproductive health will mean greater productivity.
From bad to worse
The Aspen Institute said Somalia is an example of a country in which the lack of family planning services has made a terrible situation worse. Somalia has the eighth highest birthrate in the world and has an average family size of seven children. Its population is expected to increase from around 10 million today to more than 13 million by 2025.
A woman sits with her baby in an open area near a camp in Mogadishu, Somalia, earlier this summer. Famine and drought have made bad conditions worse in the area.
Some 19 years ago, Robinson visited Somalia in the days when warlords battled for control of the country, while people starved. She recently returned and found things had deteriorated 5 further.
“There had been no functioning government for the 19 years. Instead of warlords, we have al Shabab linked to al Qaida. Food prices are at an all-time high and famine was declared in July. And finally, the Horn of Africa has had the eight hottest years ever in succession. So climate is beginning to impact,” she said.
Robinson saw the toll 6 that has taken on many Somali women.
“I met emaciated 7 women with their children with the glassy eyed (look), near starvation. And it’s a way of talking to women to say how many children do you have? And not a single mother said to me that she had less than six. So, Somalia is actually the worst case, where women have to have as many children as possible so that at least one or two may survive,” she said.
Kenya and Ethiopia
The former U.N. High Commissioner 8 for Human Rights also visited the Dadaab refugee camp. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis have sought refuge there to escape conflict, drought and famine.
“I was in Dadaab in Kenya, the largest refugee camp in the world now, and I was looking at a project that Save the Children had of child brides. These were under 18- year- olds, who were already mothers and some of them had been raped 9 on the journey from parts of Somalia, then across the border into Kenya, and became pregnant because of rape,” she said.
Robinson also visited the Amhara region of Ethiopia with some of the group known as The Elders, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu. She says often girls there get married at age 12. Many lose children during pregnancy because their bodies are just too young. Families may have as many as nine children.
She said, “I talked to a 16 year old who’d been married for a year. So she was married at 15. And I wanted to sort of have a friendly conversation with her. And I said tell me about your wedding day. And she looked at me with the saddest eyes and she said I had to drop out of school. So, one day she was at school and the next day her family said to her you are marrying this man. And she moved into his household. And you can just imagine what her life was like.”
Family planning critics
The former president of Ireland said family planning services must be culturally sensitive and cannot be imposed on a community. She says the women should be educated about what those services entail 10 and must want to use them. Robinson said the controversial issue of abortion 11 often clouds the overall picture of the importance of reproductive health.
“I wish that those who took a strong ideological 12 stand on abortion would realize how worrying it is when you cut off all access to reproductive health and family planning and women are forced into illegal and botched abortions 13, which are a huge source of maternal 14 deaths in many countries. It’s a tragedy,” she said.
Religious and conservative groups in the United States and abroad have often opposed funding for international family planning services. They cite moral and ethical 15 reasons and say the services must not be imposed on women. Many consider abortion comparable to murder.
Recently, the Global Leaders Council on Reproductive Health called on the international community to double funding for family planning to $6.7 billion.
Robinson has also founded the Mary Robinson Foundation. Its stated goal is to seek justice “for the many victims of climate change who are usually forgotten - the poor, the disempowered and the marginalized.”
- Reviewing courts were among the most active proponents of hybrid rulemaking procedures. 复审法院是最积极的混合型规则制定程序的建议者。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
- Proponents of such opinions were arrested as 'traitors. ' 提倡这种主张的人马上作为“卖国贼”逮捕起来。 来自辞典例句
- Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
- Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。
- The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
- By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
- It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长,到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
- Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。
- Her health deteriorated rapidly, and she died shortly afterwards. 她的健康状况急剧恶化,不久便去世了。
- His condition steadily deteriorated. 他的病情恶化,日甚一日。
- The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
- The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。
- A long time illness made him sallow and emaciated.长期患病使他面黄肌瘦。
- In the light of a single candle,she can see his emaciated face.借着烛光,她能看到他的被憔悴的面孔。
- The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
- He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。
- A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
- We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致,不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句
- Such a decision would entail a huge political risk.这样的决定势必带来巨大的政治风险。
- This job would entail your learning how to use a computer.这工作将需要你学会怎样用计算机。
- She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
- A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。
- He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
- He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作,对我有很大帮助。
- The Venerable Master: By not having abortions, by not killing living beings. 上人:不堕胎、不杀生。 来自互联网
- Conclusion Chromosome abnormality is one of the causes of spontaneous abortions. 结论:染色体异常是导致反复自然流产的原因之一。 来自互联网
- He is my maternal uncle.他是我舅舅。
- The sight of the hopeless little boy aroused her maternal instincts.那个绝望的小男孩的模样唤起了她的母性。