Obama reverses Bush ban on contraceptive supplies to leading family planning organisation

Decision will save women’s lives in Africa, says MSI

London – The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) today reversed a Bush Administration policy to block African governments from providing US-funded contraceptive commodities to Marie Stopes International (MSI), one of the world’s leading family planning organisations.

The Bush decision disrupted MSI operations in six of the affected countries - Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe – including some where MSI delivers nearly a third of all family planning services nationally. The move both astonished public health experts and outraged advocates for women’s rights, who accused the Bush government of playing politics with women’s lives.

“Today’s policy reversal is the latest example of the Obama Administration’s commitment to put people before politics,” said MSI chief executive Dana Hovig. “It is also a sign of their determination to return science to the heart of US public health policy.”

Hovig noted that lack of access to modern contraception contributes to the deaths each year of more than half a million women – or 1,500 per day - from pregnancy-related causes. Nearly one in four women in sub-Saharan Africa would like to access family planning but are unable to do so.

“There has been clear evidence over many years that voluntary access to contraception is one of the best ways to reduce the number of maternal deaths in Africa, including those from unsafe abortions,” Hovig said.

“Research has shown that for every 100 IUDs made available to our programmes as a result of this decision, we will avert nearly 315 unwanted pregnancies, 45 unsafe abortions and two maternal deaths.”

The Bush Administration justified its September 2008 policy by falsely accusing MSI of being complicit in “coercive abortion and involuntary sterilizations” through its role as implementing partner to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in China.

Globally, MSI manages sexual and reproductive health programmes in 43 countries. In 2008 alone, MSI programmes protected the equivalent of 13 million couples from unwanted pregnancy, a 40% increase over 2006 and the single largest two-year growth in the organisation’s 32 year history. A majority of MSI’s family planning impact is in rural, underserved areas where women are particularly vulnerable and lives are most at risk from unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion.

For more information, please contact Diana Thomas on +44(0)20 7034 2317 or +44 (0)7771 681265

Categories: Africa; Pacific Asia; Abortion; Advocacy & campaigning; Contraception; Corporate news; Emergency contraception; Family planning; Female sterilisation; Maternal health; Population & environment; Post abortion care; Primary health care; Refugees & IDPs

19/03/2009

Obama reverses Bush ban on contraceptive supplies to leading family planning organisation

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