When I got into this
contraceptives work, it definitely wasn't
something I had planned to do.
When I'd be out talking to women
in the developing world
and I'd be there to talk about
vaccines, but they would bring it up.
And they'd say to me, "Don't you see,
if I could choose when I have my next child,
it would be more fair to these children."
We take it so for granted in the United States.
We use these contraceptives,
and it's what has allowed me to plan
the number of children I would like to have,
and to work.
And yet we're not allowing these women to have them?
Simply because we've become afraid.
We've become afraid as a world
of talking about what we need.
We can't take our fear
and then not serve women
what they actually need and want
to keep themselves and their children alive.
That just doesn't make sense.
This is Sadi Seyni, and I met her in Niger.
And I was talking with her about contraceptives.
She finally said to me, "Why do I have to walk
almost 10 miles -- for her, it was kilometers --
10 miles, to get my contraceptive tool?
And then sometimes it's not there."
Sadi is one of the people I carry in my heart
because that question of, "Why?"
Why not?
This is Mary, who I met in a Korogocho slum
with her three children.
And she'd started this backpack business.
What she said to me is, "Life is hard here.
Yet when I can do this
when I can make these backpacks and sell them,
things get better for me and my kids."
Her ability to use contraceptives
means that if she doesn't choose
to have any more children,
which she was seriously contemplating not,
she can sew and do what she wants,
and she and her kids can go to market,
and she can sell more backpacks,
which means more economic opportunity for her.
Margaret Bolaji said something to me
that I've never even thought of.
She said, "You know, you all call this
family planning."
And she said, "Yes, we're planning
our families, but it's really about
planning our futures.
That if we can plan our futures
we can plan for them, and know when
we will have children.
Then we can make decisions about our lives."
And I thought, "Wow, she really nailed it."