If Abortion Is a Sin, the U.S. Should Be Asking for Forgiveness

Last week, the United States Agency for International Development released the 2015 edition of the Acting on the Call: ending preventable child and maternal deaths report. PAI commends the agency for recognizing the vital role family planning plays in “[continuing] to drive down both maternal and child mortality by enabling families to achieve healthy timing and spacing of births.” This report affirms our belief that we must prioritize funding for universal access to reproductive health services, including contraceptive services.

The Acting on the Call report documents the agency’s progress toward saving 15 million children’s lives and 600,000 women’s lives by 2020. To achieve these results, USAID is focusing on 24 countries—primarily in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia—where 70 percent of maternal deaths worldwide occur and half of the unmet need for family planning is found.

Acting on the Call credits expansion of access to family planning services as a key factor in countries’ improved health outcomes, citing estimates indicating that the increased use of family planning services to prevent unintended pregnancies leads to decreases in child and maternal death by 25% and 30%, respectively. The report also references research by the Guttmacher Institute noting that although family planning services fall short of need in all developing regions, for every dollar invested in family planning, $1.47 is saved in maternal and newborn health care.

In order to advance quality care and save the lives of women and children, integrated family planning services must be part of the equation. PAI is proud to work with advocates around the globe to strengthen and monitor the quality of family planning programs. We applaud USAID for supporting critical investments in reproductive health services, which enable women, youth, and couples to prevent unintended and high-risk pregnancies and help to achieve the goal of ending preventable child and maternal deaths; and call upon the President to request additional funding for FP/RH for the coming fiscal year to make that goal a reality.

 

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PAI champions policies that put women in charge of their reproductive health. We work with policymakers in Washington and our network of partners in developing countries to remove roadblocks between women and the services and supplies they need. For 50 years, we’ve helped women succeed by upholding their basic rights. To learn more, visit pai.org.

PAI applauds the champions in the U.S. Senate who blocked attempts this week to cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), one of the nation’s most critical providers of quality, affordable sexual and reproductive health services for women.

It is outrageous that access to vital services like contraceptive services, cervical cancer screening, and STD testing for millions of women is threatened by the unethical tactics of an organization whose mission is to shutdown PPFA.

The attacks on Planned Parenthood and the threat to its federal funding prove once again those who oppose a woman’s right to make her own decisions about her pregnancy are not just opposed to abortion. They are also fundamentally opposed to a woman’s right to contraception—and any ability she has to take charge of her fertility. As PPFA President Cecile Richards has pointed out, “If you’re concerned about what’s going on, you should release all [the videos] at once. Leaking one at a time, that’s politics.” Eliminating federal funding for PPFA would mean contraceptive access, particularly for low-income women and those in hard-to-reach areas, would be drastically reduced, if not erased.

PAI stands with Planned Parenthood because women’s health should not be held hostage to politics. Since its inception, PPFA has been a vocal partner and advocate in expanding health and rights not only for women in the United States, but also for women overseas, whose health and well-being are also affected by U.S. policies. We call on lawmakers to put anti-woman rhetoric aside and to be guided by the clear evidence on PPFA’s positive impact on women’s health and well-being. Too many lives depend on it.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Charlotte Cooper.

 

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PAI champions policies that put women in charge of their reproductive health. We work with policymakers in Washington and our network of partners in developing countries to remove roadblocks between women and the services and supplies they need. For 50 years, we’ve helped women succeed by upholding their basic rights. To learn more, visit pai.org.

ORGANIZATIONS TO OBAMA: STOP BLOCKING ABORTION ACCESS TO RAPE VICTIMS AND WOMEN WITH LIFE-THREATENING PREGNANCIES

Today, PAI joins 70 other reproductive rights and human rights organizations in urging President Obama to take overdue action to protect the rights and health of women overseas who are survivors of rape, incest, or who are facing a life-threatening pregnancy.

Currently, the Helms Amendment prohibits the use of U.S. foreign assistance funds for abortions “as a method of family planning.” However, the Obama administration has misapplied the law by prohibiting U.S. government funds from being used to provide safe abortion care even in instances unrelated to family planning—cases where a woman has become pregnant due to rape or incest, or is facing a pregnancy that endangers her life.

The stern letter from the 71 organizations to the administration comes on the eve of the president’s trip to Kenya and Ethiopia—two countries impacted by the misapplication of the law—where abortion is legal in some or all of these cases.

“We want the president to understand the real impact of Helms on women’s lives when he visits Kenya and Ethiopia,” said Jonathan Rucks, director of U.S. government relations at PAI.

“Not only is the policy reprehensible, it undermines our own global health investments by restricting access to safe abortion, and is a primary barrier to women seeking the care they need.”

An estimated 289,000 women die each year in developing countries from pregnancy-related causes, and millions more suffer debilitating injuries. The majority of these deaths are preventable, particularly from unsafe abortion, a leading cause of maternal deaths.

According to PAI President Suzanne Ehlers, “The Obama administration should not stand between women and life-saving medical care, especially in countries where access is already often limited. The stakes are simply too high.”

Since last year, PAI has tracked every second of presidential inaction on the Helms Amendment through the website www.helmshurts.com to call attention to the urgency of the issue.

Read the letter from PAI and the 70 other organizations here.

 

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PAI champions policies that put women in charge of their reproductive health. We work with policymakers in Washington and our network of partners in developing countries to remove roadblocks between women and the services and supplies they need. For 50 years, we’ve helped women succeed by upholding their basic rights. To learn more, visit pai.org.