Funding
40 Years of U.S. Family Planning Timeline
Forty years ago a bipartisan group of House and Senate members, in partnership with key allies in the executive branch and private sector, teamed together to launch U.S. assistance for international family planning. These individuals recognized that slowing rapid population growth was essential to achieving broader development goals such as improved health care and the reduction of poverty, hunger and environmental stress. [Read more]
Trends in U.S. Population Assistance
Since 1965, Congress has appropriated money in the foreign assistance bill for population assistance to developing countries to advance the U.S. foreign policy goals of promoting sustainable development and health in these countries. [Read more]
Press Release: US FY 2008 Foreign Assistance Endgame
More than two months after the beginning of the new 2008 fiscal year, the White House and Congress have finally reached agreement on a massive FY 2008 omnibus spending bill. Here is a summary of the international family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) issues within the foreign assistance provisions of the bill. [Read more]
Fact Sheet: Why the U.S. Should Support Family Planning Overseas
The US foreign aid program has expanded access to contraception for millions of couples in developing nations, enabling them to plan their families. The program has also helped to slow population growth rates, making an important contribution to the future quality of life on our planet. Yet the job is far from done. For global family planning efforts to fully succeed, Americans and their leaders must continue to support US population assistance. [Read more]
Research Commentary: The Changing Face of Foreign Assistance-New Funding Paradigms Offer a Challenge and Opportunity for Family Planning
New foreign assistance strategies that aim to encourage ownership by recipients while still effectively reducing poverty are laudable. They offer the hope of increased financial support to overall global development—a bigger pie—but they also pose significant challenges to the family planning field: Will it be able to keep a slice of that pie? [Read more]
Viewpoint: Family Planning in the Philippines
“Birthrates Help Keep Filipinos in Poverty” – that’s the headline of an April 21, 2008 Washington Post article highlighting the plight of a growing number of poor women in the Philippines who lack access to one of the most basic forms of health care: family planning (FP) and reproductive health services. [Read more]
Bush Slashes Funding for Women and Families around the World
President Bush's proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2009, released today, would dramatically cut funding for international family planning and sexual and reproductive health programs. The proposed funding level of $327 million represents a $134 million (or 29%) cut from current levels. [Read more]
Appropriating Women's Lives
For the first time in recent history, the House and Senate have united in support of the pragmatic "prevention first" policy that is favored by most Americans and backed by strong evidence. Both the House and the Senate have voted in favor of provisions that exempt contraceptives from the Global Gag Rule. [Read more]
Mr. President: Read the Bill!
Members of Congress head back to their districts this month with the threat of a Presidential veto of the 2008 Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill casting a dark cloud over the good work they’ve done. Why a possible veto? It’s all because of a provision that exempts U.S.-donated contraceptives and condoms from the restrictions of the Global Gag Rule. [Read more]
Appropriations Bill Includes Life-Saving Reproductive Health Provisions
With its Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs’ approval of the fiscal year 2008 appropriations bill, the House of Representatives took a significant step toward grounding U.S. aid for family planning and HIV/AIDS relief in sound evidence. [Read more]
House Appropriations Committee United in Efforts to Improve Effectiveness of U.S. Assistance for Family Planning and HIV/AIDS Programs
Today during debate of the FY 2008 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations, the House Appropriations Committee went on record in strong support of measures to improve the effectiveness of U.S. assistance for family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention programs. [Read more]
This Afternoon the House Appropriations Subcommittee will mark up bill to remove Ideology-based restrictions on U.S. foreign assistance for family planning and HIV/AIDS
Today's action by the House Appropriations Subcommittee is a much needed dose of common sense when it comes to U.S. assistance on family planning and HIV/AIDS. The evidence is overwhelming that one-size-fits-all abstinence programs don't protect women and girls from HIV and that contraceptives are vital to saving mothers' lives and reducing abortion. [Read more]
