The news article we link to here is an odd one; while anti smoking news headlines are more common than snow in the Arctic this one differs because the headline, – "Dreams Of Happy Marital Life Ruined Through Drinking and Smoking" – is so removed from the article it introduces that it is beyond laughable.

At no point at all do the authors discuss "happy marital life" and the only mention of drinking and smoking is to make a single claim of slower fetal growth. Why then were the results of this Australian study of female reproductive health published in MedIndia with a headline that has absolutely nothing to do with female reproductive health?

The article itself focuses on results that revealed women in Australia are having fewer children now than they did in the 1920’s. Now call me cynical but are we really expected to believe that the reason that modern women have fewer children is down to alcohol and tobacco? Even after that leap of faith how then does this result in unhappy marriages? Are they seriously suggesting that a woman can only be happy if she is married and producing lots of babies and that this is not possible for people who smoke or drink?

For a start, the role of women in society has changed beyond all recognition since the 1920’s; in that era they were firmly expected to stay home, cook, clean and raise babies, there was no contraception and nothing to do in the evening other than knit by candlelight or have an early night. Yet nowhere are these rather obvious reasons for the decline in baby production discussed.

So there we appear to have it; anti smoking/drinking messages can be released to the world wide media through respected medical publications even when that message has nothing to do with the study being covered and stretches the bounds of stupidity by suggesting that women have to be married and making babies to be happy which they can only achieve as non smokers/drinkers.

Can anyone seriously argue that this isn’t "plucked from thin air propaganda" ?


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