The Price Of Denying Choice

Ann Crittenden

June 13, 2005

A former economics reporter for the New York Times and a Pulitzer Prize nominee, Ann Crittenden has also been a reporter for Fortune, a financial writer and foreign correspondent for Newsweek, and an occasional commentator for CBS News. She is the author of, most recently, The Price of Motherhood.

I waited a very long time to have a baby—in fact, I narrowly escaped being that woman on the T-shirt who looks at her watch and cries, "Oh, I forgot to have a baby." But luckily I didn’t forget, and I did have a wonderful, healthy child well after my 40th birthday.

I had waited so long to become a mother because I took motherhood seriously. I wanted to be sure I was ready to put that child first in my life. And this is what reproductive freedom is ultimately all about: responsible parenting. Reproductive freedom is not just about women’s choices. It’s about society’s willingness and ability to raise healthy, happy children who grow up to become the productive citizens of tomorrow.

You don’t usually hear this, but the truth is that you cannot have well-nurtured, well-educated children or a modern, dynamic economy without reproductive freedom. Put another way, denying reproductive freedom is a perfect formula for economic backwardness.