Global Health NOW: Protecting Fragile Progress in Family Planning
Jose “Oying” Rimon II, director, and Amy O. Tsui, professor and senior scholar, both of the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health in the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

“…Yes, we are bending the curve toward our goal of reaching 120 million more family planning users by 2020, but we still have a long way to go. Despite the recent wins, we are not on track to meet this goal. And while the rest of the world — especially sub-Saharan Africa — demonstrates achievements in country-led programs, the U.S. administration is in full retreat on foreign assistance for family planning. Despite the clear evidence that investing family planning brings about a lifetime of returns, the current U.S. administration has proposed zeroing out the State Department’s and USAID’s budget for international family planning. … For a relatively small investment by the U.S. government of about $600 million a year, the Senate Committee’s proposed level of support, millions of lives could be saved, and millions of unsafe abortions and maternal and child deaths could be averted. … The discord will continue in the years to come unless executive and majority legislative leadership accept the broad base of scientific evidence for family planning, as 166 other governments around the world already have” (1/10).