I was disturbed and dismayed on hearing recently on the news that Haiti is having a baby boom. Haiti needs many things, but definitely not a baby boom.
Many of these pregnancies are the result of rape, even on girls as young as 13. The babies are entering a world in which there is not enough food, medical care, housing, education or employment, in short, extreme poverty. Clean water is often unavailable, hence the deadly cholera outbreak.
Haitians have suffered under corrupt government for years so infrastructure and social services are in a sorry state. The land is impoverished and deforested, the result of too many people trying to wrest a living from it.
No country can long be sustained by gifts, goods and services from abroad, yet they are all that seem to be keeping anything going even a whole year after that catastrophic earthquake.
All this and still more babies arriving.
Surely reasonable action would be to supply pregnancy prevention pills to all who wish them. Even the most rigid doctrinaire ought to be able to understand this situation.
With half the population in their teens or younger, just survival becomes more precarious. Haitians are a resilient people, and increased population only lessens their country’s chance of recovery.
Sheila White
Summerland
