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1. Bravo Melinda Gates for tackling a great problem in developing countries.
   Keeping women in these countries in a situation where they are constantly pregnant is not a morally correct act.
   Having children born into abject poverty is certainly not what I would consider what Jesus would want for these people.
   Maybe the Good Lord is giving Melinda a great idea to assist these women.
   Bravo, Melinda! Go for it. Women all over the world will thank you for your concern.

   Posted By: Peg Saunders

2. What a great way to make a difference in women's lives.
   They are generally the burden bearers of their societies and having control in deciding the number of children they have must improve the quality of life for the whole famiy and the society.

   Posted By: Helen Mitchell Central Qld

3. I echo Peg Saunders comments totally. It's certainly time that all of us (laity and clergy alike) took a stance by supporting someone like Melinda Gates who is prepared to cop the flak and help other women in developing counties take [some] control over their lives.
   

   Posted By: Jeff KETTERING TAS 7155

4. Good old Catholic Melinda, with so much money she would have difficulty spending it all.
   When faced with this 'problem' she forks out a few bucks to provide artificial sterilty and keep the husbands out of the loop.
   What a great way to foster family security and trust.
   No doubt she flies back in the company jet to Bill and his mansion feeling very philanthropic. I wonder if she thinks it might be a good idea to spend some of their billions on clean water, education, decent schooling, improved infrastructure like a hospital or similar? I wonder if she might be able to fund classes on the natural rhythm of a woman's fertility.
   Being a Catholic and presumably interested in this subject one would imagine she's aware of the church's teaching in this area.
   Judging by the tenor of the above article she has another perspective. No doubt she is another one who has swallowed the 'overpopulation' agenda.
   Doesn't she know her white Anglo-Saxon proportion of the US is shrinking and growing older just as it is around the world. That's what happens when people swallow myths like overpopulation and the primacy of conscience over principle.
   

   Posted By: Barry

5. All women deserve to have a say in the direction their lives take, their health generally and the health and well being of their children.
   I am not so sure about the safety of this form of contraception, but I am in support of contraception.
   So I think Melinda Gates is making a good decision.
   
   These women have such incredibly difficult lives, it is so unfair for Church hierarchy, who live in luxury and safety, to make decisions for them.
   
   I thank God everyday for the safe place I live and my freedom.
   
   

   Posted By: Cate

6. Our Church teaching on birth control is a 'contrived' one, as it does not appear anywhere that I can find in the Bible teachings of Jesus.
   There may well be someone out there who can point me in its direction if I am wrong, please.
   I do not consider myself an advocate of artificial birth control, but Melinda Gates is a product of post-Vatican II confusion regarding this issue, by clergy and laity alike.
   Perhaps some compassion and understanding is required here, both for Melinda Gates and the women of Africa who no doubt move her to tears as they do me.
   Post Vat. II there simply was no direction on the matter, so a laxity developed which now bears fruit among the young people of our church.
   The feathers are scattered and no amount of condemnation will make any difference. It is easy to be judgemental, so let's ask Jesus what we could do.
   

   Posted By: Mary Bates

7. At last, someone with some common sense when it comes to responsible action regarding the world's population. Contraception should be made freely available to those who want or need it as a a necessary and urgent response to the world's population crisis. And it is a crisis, be sure of that!
   You only have to work in the field and you will see for yourself. It is disappointing to see the Vatican (not the Church!) taking a hypocritical stand on this matter.
   Hypocritical because on the one hand it bans the use of interventional contraception and yet promotes a 'natural' method of contraception, which supposedly has the same effect. If the Church was serious about this matter it would be far more active in supporting those who struggle with large families in developing countries.
   In general, Catholics who can ignore the Vatican's ban and act responsibly in this matter. For those who do not have this right, thank you to the Gates Foundation for making it possible.

   Posted By: Peter Murphy

8. Barry: you are so out of touch with the real world. Get out of your arm chair and travel to many parts of the world where over-population is a problem Live in these communities and hear their stories. Then, if you still support the Vatican's (not the Church) teaching, go and sell all that you have and give it to those who are suffering as a result of such teachings!

   Posted By: Peter Murphy

9. Thank God for Melinda Gates! I believe this reaffirms the Holy Spirit is at work in the world!
   To me the official teaching of the Church on this issue is inappropriate, particularly in respect to developing nations.
   

   Posted By: James W

10. It is important to help one's neighbour but not when it conflicts with God's directives. Only God gives and takes life.
    As Catholics we can only practise sexual abstience, which is supported by the Billings Method.
    Of course the men rebel but like any other cause, through the suffering will come victory, the victory of forming our men into loving husbands where relationships are based on love and are not just sexually driven.
    The women need to say to God, 'I am following your teaching and I know that You will bind our love and not destroy it.'
    I look back on my life with gratitude that God responded and I have some beautiful children who belong to Him and who He is blessing with incredible
    love and care.
    The two children who I had before I took this stance are a source of great anguish. It seems to be that the sin of the father/mother are visited upon the children.
    God is love so why not trust him.
    
    

    Posted By: Marie Fitzgerald

11. I stand firmly on the side of church teaching.
    There is no overpopulation problem: there is a poverty problem; there is a lack of justice; a lack of education, a lack of career opportunities, especially for women; a lack of infrastructure. The list goes on.
    These problems are not solved by artificial birth control. They need to be addressed directly.
    If we have a good honest look at the damage artificial birth control has done to the western world we would think twice about foisting it on to the undeveloped and developing worlds.
    Raquel Welch, a fading sex-goddess of the sixties and seventies, has written a book lamenting the damage done to male /female relationship and society generally by the introduction of the birth control pill.
    Our Church is guided by The Holy Spirit. We should never forget that and so we should do our best to understand the wisdom behind some of its most difficult teachings, not blithely dismiss them.
    It helps also to recognize our own weaknesses and relative lack of understanding and look to Christ and his Church for our lead - not unthinkingly, not without questioning, but with faith and confidence that we will be guided on the right path.
    

    Posted By: Robert

12. It is true that Melinda and Bill Gates donate much to certain charities - like Planned Parenthood. They also believe strongly in population control. In October 2010, Bill Gates, who has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to new vaccine efforts, said: “Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent." Makes one think!

    Posted By: M. Lyons

13. God always forgives, man may forgive, but Nature never forgives!
    She will always kick back as sure as a gun. To foster pleasure for its own sake, Melinda Gates is condemning women to a bondage which is very difficult for the Holy Spirit of Jesus to unbind. Men and women are spiritual beings which is a fact of which most contributers to this news post appear to have no knowledge.
    Judging by the world's standards is the recipe for death.

    Posted By: Alex Reichel

14. Marie: I feel so sad that you see your first two children as a source of great anguish, seemingly viewing them as the the product of the sins of their parents.
    All our children are gifts from God. They come into this world pure and untouched. They have their genetic heritage, their innate personalities and temperaments and are then shaped by their environment and experiences.
    At any given time in our lives, our children (and indeed our parents) may bring us joy or cause us anxiety. Sadly sometimes we may feel anguish in our love for them. Never give up on them - they are your children whom you brought into the world, whatever the circumstances of their births may have been.
    Love them, support them, pray for them and as you said yourself: put your trust in God.

    Posted By: Anne M

15. Contraception contravenes the natural order of the sexual act, i.e it separates the unitive loving and procreative sides of it.
    Supporters of it cite it as a prerequisite for improving a woman's health or to curb a so-called impending global population explosion.
    But since when has something as naturally healthy as a lady's fertility been classified as a disease?
    The population demographics are falling below fertility replacement levels across both the developed and developing worlds so that the global population will peak around 2030. It then will fall quite sharply.
    The projected peak figure is around 8-9 billion. Thus societies are already suffering from the consequences of the pill.
    The enforcement of contraceptive technology on developing nations is nothing more than a condescending act by the colonial mindset of rich countries and individuals
    The moral consequences of the wide availability of the pill in Western societies was prophesied in the sage words of the Humanae Vitae Encyclical authored by Pope Paul V1 in 1968, i.e surge in divorces, abortions and the sexual objectivization of women. Raquel Welch who lived through the Sexual Revolution of the 60'and 70's, recently commented on the disastrous effects of sex without consequences on marriage, as typified by break-ups and divorces

    Posted By: Gerry McIvor

16. I hope that after her efforts to spread contraception in the developing countries are successful, Melinda Gates has many billions left over to address the devastating effects of contraception on family life of the sort that the West has witnessed for decades, when they impact on those hapless societies.
    Melinda might be rich and sincere, but she lacks the wisdom of former sex icon and actress Raquel Welch, who recently launched a blistering attack on the consequences of the contraception and 'family planning':
    'Margaret Sanger opened the first American family-planning clinic in 1916, and nothing would be the same again. Since then the growing proliferation of birth control methods has had an awesome effect on both sexes and led to a sea change in moral values ... Seriously, folks, if an aging sex symbol like me starts waving the red flag of caution over how low moral standards have plummeted, you know it's gotta be pretty bad.'

    Posted By: HH

17. Melinda Gates is a poor misguided soul advocating a culture of death and making African nations less empowered by denying the people real love and a real freedom - only to be found in the gospel.
    What woman would give her sisters dangerous cancer-causing chemicals instead of bread?
    

    Posted By: Jules

18. I cannot understand how there can be confusion on the church's teaching on artificial contraception when it is so clear - anything that interferes with openness to life is a mortal sin.
    It is a shame that these resources are not being put into addressing some of the causes of poverty.
    Jesus doesn't want his children born into poverty but likewise he doesn't want that life cut short before it comes into the world.

    Posted By: Darren Pearce

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