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Focus: Family planning is good for the planet and its inhabitants
Sunday, April 1, 2001
By PETER D. BELL, AMY COEN, GLORIA FELDT and CHARLES MACCORMACK
Q: What products do millions of Americans buy at their local drugstore to safeguard their health and allow them to take advantage of economic and educational opportunities?
A: Family planning.
Q: Seriously?
A: Seriously.
Q. Now, what products are wanted by at least 150 million married couples in poor countries but are out of their reach?
A. Family planning.
Q. Why?
A. Good question.
Most Americans take it for granted -- the ability to determine when and whether to have children.
But as World Health Day approaches Saturday, we should note the astonishing gap between the world's wealthy and the world's poor in their access to family planning services.
The result is that every minute of every day, somewhere on Earth, a woman dies in pregnancy or childbirth -- more than 500,000 deaths a year. Of the motherless children left behind, an estimated 90 percent die before they turn 1.
It doesn't have to be like this. And through the Planet campaign funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, five diverse organizations have come together to help Americans see that, too. This campaign, active in the Seattle area since July, is spearheaded by CARE, the National Audubon Society, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Population Action International and Save the Children.
Americans overwhelmingly agree that everyone, no matter where they live, should have the right to determine when and how many children to have. Americans also believe in saving women's lives, caring for children, providing education for all, alleviating poverty and preserving our natural environment. Family planning helps achieve all these goals.
In cooperation with many other industrialized nations, the United States provides family-planning assistance to developing countries. This assistance helps women prevent unintended pregnancy, and it does a lot more.
Health centers receiving U.S. family-planning assistance often supply the only basic health care of any kind for miles around. They offer information on and access to contraception; reproductive health care and education on nutrition and hygiene. These centers also provide health care for pregnant women, assistance when they deliver their babies and follow-up care for mother and child.
Providing a mother with access to contraception also helps her children. Studies show that children spaced at intervals of two years or more are healthier than siblings born in rapid succession. In fact, experts consider contraceptives as important to public health as vaccines or antibiotics.
The health and well-being of people are closely linked to the well-being of the global environment. Providing access to family-planning services is a critical and achievable first step in preserving natural resources and protecting the environment for our children and grandchildren.
What's more, support for family planning will help prevent the spread of the AIDS virus, which is devastating so many developing countries. By providing men and women the education and services they need for sexual health, these programs protect them from AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections and help ensure their babies are healthy. Last year, more than half the AIDS deaths in the world were women, and they left behind millions of orphans, many of them HIV-positive.
Although family planning is not a panacea for all the problems the world's poorest women face, it goes a long way toward providing a fuller range of opportunities for them and their families -- options they otherwise would not have. Women who can choose when to have children are much more likely to stay in school, seek jobs, become economically productive and participate in community life. They have more resources to feed, clothe and educate their children.
Women and men in every country increasingly want to plan their families. Indeed, right now there are 150 million married couples in developing countries who have said they would like to delay or cease childbearing, but can't get contraceptives.
Understanding this, 179 countries, including the United States, agreed in 1994 to ensure universal access to basic reproductive health services and at least primary school education by 2015. Poor countries agreed to shoulder two-thirds of the cost and asked wealthier nations to provide the remaining third.
Currently, about $11 billion is spent on family planning in the developing world -- far less than what is needed. Of that, the developing nations contribute $8.9 billion, while the industrialized world provides only $2.1 billion. The United States provides nearly $425 million, less than 4 percent of the total amount spent on family planning assistance and about one-third of what we promised in 1994. This is just a tiny sliver of the less than 1 percent of our federal budget that is spent on humanitarian assistance.
However, even this modest contribution is mired in politics and opposed by some who make this issue an extension of the domestic abortion debate. In reality, no U.S. funds are used to provide or promote abortion services. These funds provide vital health care services, including voluntary contraception, pre- and post-natal health care, sex education and infant and child health services. Those who oppose abortion should join with us in support of family planning as the best way to prevent unintended pregnancies.
Polls show that 92 percent of Americans agree that all couples should have the right to determine the size of their family. Overwhelmingly, the public supports these critical health services. Now it's time to put that support into action.
Just a three-fold increase in our country's financial support of international family planning would cost us each less than $5 annually. That's a bargain.
Nothing better reflects America's values than helping poor families as they work to secure a brighter future. By working with our legislators and asking them to increase family planning funding, we can begin closing the gap between the world's wealthy and the world's poor.
Peter D. Bell is president and CEO of CARE. Amy Coen is president of Population Action International. Gloria Feldt is president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Charles MacCormack is president and CEO of Save the Children. More information can be found at www.familyplanet.org
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