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already comparatively low and the use of contraception widespread. Presumably, the effect of "reversing the default" would be still greater in the many countries with very high birthrates, where access to contraception is erratic or nonexistent. It is also important to see that the effect on the birthrate of the universal use of automatic contraception would be greater than if, for instance, RU-486â€"the so-called French abortion pill-were universally available, a development we are likely to see in the United States within the next two years. Even aside from scruples many women have about abortion, reliance on such technologies to control fertility still requires women to do something to stop pregnancy, rather than do something to start it; and if I am right that they will choose to have fewer children than they would accept having if pregnancy occurs, universal availability of RU-486 would not have nearly the impact on the birthrate that universal use of "automatic" contraception would, even though it would seem to give a woman equally great control over her own reproductive life. The universal use of automatic contraception would have an equally dramatic effect, I think, on reproductive self-determination. If a woman can become pregnant only when she has made a choice to do so, a choice followed by removal or neutralization of her "automatic" contraceptive device, she is far less vulnerable to being pressured, coerced, or overcome by passion in compromising sexual situations and hence risk pregnancy when that has not been her previously considered choice. She cannot become pregnant because she forgot or misused her birth control methods. She cannot become pregnant as the result of rape or involuntary incest, at least unless she is also coerced into requesting removal of her device. Once she has an automatic contraceptive, she cannot be denied access to birth control methods by lack of funds, by pressure from her husband or partner, or by the disapproval of the church or village elders. What reversing the default with "automatic" background contraception does is to alter her decision-making options from a range of negative choicesâ€"not to get pregnant now, not to get pregnant tomorrow, not to get pregnant the next dayâ€"to a positive one: ...|6... |
