“Some women just don’t want children. So what? That is self-determination!” With this slogan begins a nauseating video of the television network “funk” offered by the German public television companies ARD and ZDF, whose opinion leaders plead for sterilization on request. Best scenario for them? It should be financed by public health insurance.
“What I can no longer hear: women who do not want children are not normal women.” So speaks one convinced young lady in the video, directly to the viewer.
“What if you got pregnant unintentionally? My answer was, as always, that I would abort immediately, which is why I had myself sterilized over half a year ago,” explains another of the women interviewed.
Sterilization on request, ideally financed by the health insurance: that is the tenor of the video, which tries to smear all the “counter-arguments” read out by the interviewees: “What if I regret it at some point? This is my regret; I have to deal with it alone. I have to live with it and nobody else.”
The “funk” series is financed by compulsory broadcasting contributions. According to its own statements, the network has an annual budget of around 45 million euros, a third coming from ZDF and the other two thirds from ARD, the two primary public media channels of Germany.
The established image is clear: young, strong, self-confident women who have the courage to speak of their own accord and are incensed about certain “grievances” women have against society. The video appears to be primarily a reaction to the “high” cost of sterilization, and a response to the the request of Germany’s Health Minister Jens Spahn to increase contributions from childless people.
“The cost of sterilization for a woman is about 600-1000 €. Health insurance only pays the costs if there are strict medical indications for the procedure. […] I made the decision myself to have myself sterilized because it somehow fits financially. […] It would be ideal, of course, if contraception is completely covered by the health insurance company,” runs some of the dialogue in the video.
“Jen Spahn can imagine increasing nursing care insurance for childless people. That is absolutely ridiculous!”
Does this video speak of the “suppressed” needs of most of the population? The negative reaction on YouTube suggest the opposite. The only 178 likes are trumped by almost 1000 dislikes, and almost all comments criticize the content of the video.
Nevertheless, the public broadcasters did not shy away from such anti-family propaganda – financed by the well-behaved taxpayer.
In its smug conclusion, the video trumpets: “Desired childlessness among women is one of the last major taboos.” Is it really? Are childless women looked at condescendingly in the shop or on the street? Or, rather, is it not the case that really families with three, four, or five children are more often the objects of such condescension? This is the appalling blindness to reality that the “role models” in this video present, with taxpayer-funded airtime!
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