New global drive on family planning
Thursday July 12th, 2012
Midwives have hailed a global summit on family planning held in London, UK, yesterday as "historic".
The
event, backed by the World Health Organisation sought to boost the supply
of good quality contraception to the world's poorest countries.
It said some 120 million women and girls should be spared coercion and discrimination to use contraception.
The summit heard a commitment to half a billion dollars of funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, set up with the profits from Microsoft.
WHO director general Dr Margaret Chan said: “Access to modern contraception is a fundamental right of every woman.
“Hand-in-hand with this right is a need to honour the dignity of women by giving them a range of family planning options and the freedom to make their own personal choice.”
WHO says this needs a range of choices for women and increasing the number of skilled health workers able to provide family planning.
Louise Silverton, deputy general secretary of the UK Royal College of Midwives, said: "It is truly a historic event and a transformative initiative that will dramatically impact the lives of 120 million women.
"We support the summit’s goals of promoting delaying the age of marriage, improving access to contraception, enabling family spacing and stopping having children when the desired family size has been reached. These goals are all very important to reduce maternal mortality and improve health and well-being for newborns."
Tags: UK News | Women’s Health & Gynaecology | World Health
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