After days of speculation and confusion over the priorities for the G8 maternal and child health initiative, specifically the inclusion of family planning, IPPF welcomes yesterday's statement from Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper that “The government is seeking a dialogue with the countries of the G8 to save the lives of mothers and children all over the world."
Mr. Harper continued by stating that his Government is “...not closing the door to any option, and that includes contraception..." However, he declined to confirm that his Government agreed that contraception saved lives and that it was central to any efforts to improve maternal and child health.
The Prime Minister’s statement came after the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lawrence Cannon, seemed to indicate that the government’s policy was to exclude family planning from the G8 initiative, stating, "It does not deal in any way, shape or form with family planning. Indeed, the purpose of this is to be able to save lives".
Dr. Gill Greer, Director General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, said:
“Family planning does save lives. Too many women and girls die in pregnancy and child birth; too many of their pregnancies were unintended.
Each and every day, 215 million women around the world who want to plan their families cannot access family planning services.
If the G8 maternal health initiative excludes family planning we will be failing these women and putting millions more in the same position. This situation would be unacceptable in G8 countries so why is it acceptable for poor women in poor countries?
“Funding for family planning has declined dramatically, from US$653m in 1997 to only US$394m in 2006, and only 18% of women in Africa have access to family planning services.
Given the importance of family planning to women’s health we should not be surprised that pregnancy and childbirth cause 500,000 plus avoidable deaths each and every year, or that they are the major causes of death for 15-19 year olds.
Not to include family planning in this critically important initiative can only exacerbate this inequity between developing countries and donor countries, where men and women take family planning for granted as part of their everyday lives.”
Decades of evidence clearly shows that family planning is one of the key components of reducing maternal mortality and there is a global consensus that the ability to plan one’s family and space births is one of the four pillars of maternal health and a critical component in newborn and child health.
No country has made significant inroads to improving maternal health without having widespread access to family planning in place also.
IPPF remains concerned that while family planning is not now specifically excluded, it still hasn’t been specifically included or prioritized within the initiative.
The omission of family planning and contraception from a global maternal health initiative would be disastrous for women, especially poor women in poor countries, and would severely undermine all attempts to improve maternal health and reduce maternal and child deaths.
The need for activist and civil society action remains. IPPF calls on Governments, UN Agencies, its Member Associations and CSO partners to work through their contacts and networks to send their unequivocal support for family planning as part of a comprehensive approach saving the lives of women and their families.
Such a comprehensive approach must also include addressing the scourge of unsafe abortion.
Only last year all G8 leaders signed the Consensus for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, which stipulates that “comprehensive family planning advice, services and supplies” are critical to improving maternal, newborn and child health.
IPPF is urging the G8 to fulfil its commitments to maternal and newborn health by ensuring family planning is central to its proposed new initiative.
The Guttmacher Institute states that “the direct health benefits of meeting the need for both family planning and maternal and newborn health services would be dramatic.
Unintended pregnancies would drop by more than twothirds, from 75 million in 2008 to 22 million per year. Seventy percent of maternal deaths would be averted—a decline from 550,000 to 160,000. Forty-four percent of newborn deaths would be averted—a decline from 3.5 million to 1.9 million.”
Only by fully funding family planning can this be realized.