Decisions on International Family Planning Funding and Policy Await Congress After August Recess
August 29, 2005
On June 28, 2005, the U.S. House of Representatives approved by a vote of 393-32 the fiscal year (FY) 2006 spending bill for Foreign Operations. Included in this annual appropriations bill is funding for all U.S. international development assistance, including family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) programs.
The Critical Link Between Population Growth and Hunger
August 22, 2005
Severe food shortages in Niger have captured the world's attention by illustrating the devastating nature of chronic hunger and famine. Chronic hunger, also known as food insecurity, affects approximately 850 million people worldwide and causes the vast majority of hunger-related deaths in the world today. While poverty and natural disasters are the most common causes of food insecurity, rapid population growth is intensifying the situation in parts of the developing world by overburdening already strained financial and natural resources.
A Friendly Reminder From Youth
August 15, 2005
The largest generation of young people in history is entering its reproductive years. Yet rarely do these youth have access to the detailed and accurate information about sexuality and reproduction they need to make the informed decisions that affect their lives. On the occasion of this year's International Youth Day, the United Nations is calling on governments and civil society organizations to remain committed to the promises they have made to their youth – and PAI joins the UN in this call.
Bush's New Loyalty Oath Violates First Amendment
August 12, 2005
Population Action International Commends Lawsuit Challenging Ideological Restrictions on U.S. HIV/AIDS Funds
PAI commends the lawsuit filed yesterday challenging the constitutionality of U.S. restrictions recently extended to U.S.-based organizations that provide HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
U.S. EC Restrictions are Nothing New to Women Overseas
August 8, 2005
A debate is emerging in the United States over the availability of and access to emergency contraception. But for women in developing countries – whose access to this critical family planning method has been hindered for years by restrictive U.S. policies – this debate is hardly new.
Contraceptive Use Helps Reduce the Incidence of Abortion
August 1, 2005
Nearly 80 million unintended pregnancies occur worldwide every year. More than half of these pregnancies end in abortion, often in countries where abortion is illegal and access to contraception is limited. Access to voluntary family planning services, including contraception, is essential in helping to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and, consequently, the incidence of abortion.
How Population Growth Affects Hunger in the Developing World
August 1, 2005
More than 850 million people worldwide are classified as undernourished, many of whom suffer from chronic hunger (also known as food insecurity). Rapid population growth is intensifying food insecurity in parts of the developing world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where some countries' populations are doubling and tripling every 30-50 years. Greater investments in voluntary family planning programs and supplies, including contraceptives, are urgently required to meet the needs of more than 200 million women worldwide who wish to delay or end their childbearing but do not have access to modern and effective contraceptive methods.
Supporting Prevention Could Make the Need for Treating Fistula Obsolete
August 1, 2005
More than 2 million women in the developing world suffer from obstetric fistula, a condition that results from complications during childbirth. An estimated 50,000-100,000 women are left incontinent by fistula every year, but not in much of the Western world where access to robust reproductive health and family planning services is widespread. Women with access to these services, specifically contraception, can protect themselves from fistula by delaying, spacing and limiting their pregnancies. But rather than help make those services available to more women, the Bush Administration and its allies in Congress are once again favoring treatment over prevention.
Bush and the Contraception Contradiction
July 25, 2005
Even as President Bush reinstated the Mexico City Policy (also known as the Global Gag Rule) in January 2001, the White House asserted that the President supports U.S. family planning assistance efforts, stating that “he knows that one of the best ways to prevent abortion is by providing quality voluntary family planning services.” Four years later, the President's support for safe and voluntary contraception is no longer so clear or concise.
In Comes the Pledge, Out Goes the First Amendment
July 18, 2005
Those Who Will Suffer are Those Most At-Risk of AIDS
Since 2003, the Bush Administration has restricted funds to foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) combating HIV/AIDS by requiring these groups to have an official policy opposing prostitution and sex trafficking. This anti-prostitution loyalty oath did not previously extend to U.S. organizations because of justifiable concerns about its constitutionality, but domestic HIV/AIDS NGOs now are being required to make the same pledge or lose critical federal funds, due to the Justice Department's reversal of its original interpretation of the policy.
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