CNN: Why is the U.S. rolling back this high-return global investment?
Seema Jalan, executive director of the U.N. Foundation’s Universal Access Project

“…By reinstating and massively expanding the global gag rule in January 2017, defunding the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) just a few months later, and proposing to cut funding for international reproductive health and family planning … the Trump administration has created a perfect storm that jeopardizes the health and rights of millions of the world’s most marginalized women and families and threatens global economic progress. … Clearly, the actions underway by the current administration represent a monumental step backward in our standing as a global health leader and will grind to a halt the ripple effect of growth and prosperity that is sparked when women can plan their families and their futures. … Women’s access to birth control is not only a fundamental human right, it is one of the best investments we can make in the world’s future. It pays off in the short term with savings in other health care areas … It also pays off in the long term by unlocking the economic potential of a country’s women and youth. … But in the past year, U.S. policymakers have taken drastic steps backward that will cut this progress off at the knees … It may seem worlds away, but there is no doubt that this rollback will impact us here at home as the lowest-income countries around the world lose the broad returns on our global family planning investments…” (3/10).