On World Population Day we remind United Nations that pregnancy isn't a disease, and abortion isn't safe!

Yesterday, July 11, was World Population Day and the United Nations presented a report on the world population and making particular mention of teenage pregnancy and population growth in Africa.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - In the United Nations report delivered on World Population Day, adolescent pregnancy and Africa were given particular attention.

According to the report, as many as 20 to 40 percent of African girls are married by the age of 18. Many become pregnant while their own bodies are still growing and developing. These pregnancies can result in complications and may end in sterilization, or death.

The root of the matter is twofold, a general lack of medical attention, and a lack of education.

The report calls for increased education, increased medical care, including widespread distribution of contraceptives, abortifacients, and the practice of abortion.

Abortion in particular, is outlawed in all but two African countries. According to the United Nations, this is part of the problem. However there are many who respectfully disagree.

The heart of the problems is education. The lack of professional medical care, a general lack of infrastructure, and widespread poverty, as well as long-standing cultural traditions means that many young African women do not have access to important life-saving medical information that could allow them to manage their reproductive health in an entirely natural way.

Education should be the first tool of choice in addressing this problem.

Instead, the United Nations simply wants to distribute contraceptives, chemicals, and abortions.

Fortunately, the many African nations understand well that not all things produced by the Western world are good. Contraceptives are not always effective, and often facilitate risky behavior such as promiscuity, because people place false stock and their ability to protect individuals from pregnancy and disease.

Many contraceptives are based on chemicals, whose long-term effects on the human body remain unknown.

Naturally, abortion is a dangerous and invasive procedure that takes the life of millions of children around the globe each year.

UN officials have called for increased access to "safe abortions." Of course, there's nothing safe about a medical procedure with a 50 percent-plus mortality rate.

In fact, the single best and most empowering option remains natural family planning the education. Monogamous marriages, celibacy, and a general overall better quality of life and access to medical care will also do much to solve many of Africa's problems with diseases such as HIV and complications arising from youthful pregnancies.

The United Nations has issued its report. Perhaps soon, it would be appropriate to hear the Catholic Church, which enjoys a wide following across Africa, issue a response to the dangerous doublespeak recently delivered by UN officials.

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