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. This money supports family planning and related reproductive health services through programs administered by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Such programs directly benefit tens of millions of couples each year, improving both maternal and child health and contributing to slower population growth.

In 1994, at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), 179 nations agreed on a plan for achieving universal access to basic reproductive health care by 2015. Today, vast differences remain in reproductive health status between rich and poor countries. The HIV/AIDS pandemic exacts a growing toll in human lives and threatens economic growth in some of the world's poorest countries. Donors focused on achieving the Millennium Development Goals  and concerned with poverty reduction, human rights, health and development  must help ensure the adequate flow of financial resources (referred to as population assistance) for sexual and reproductive health services.

Sexual and reproductive health services, including family planning, are among the most important elements of the global effort to contain the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Through a well-established infrastructure, they help provide the supplies, education and information that are known to be effective in preventing the spread of infection.

Family planning opponents in the U.S. Congress have long sought to place burdensome restrictions on U.S. population assistance. One such restriction is the Mexico City Policy, known to its opponents as the Global Gag Rule, which has proven detrimental to America's foreign policy objectives, to family planning programs in developing countries, and to women's health.

Continued high rates of AIDS-related illness and death in some of the world's poorest countries could impose unprecedented changes in their population age structures, stunt their economic development and retard their demographic transition  the change from a population characterized by short lives and large families, to one with long lives and small families. These impacts promise to leave the most seriously AIDS-affected countries even more vulnerable to political instability and civil conflict. How the world responds to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in this decade could bear heavily upon the future of global security.

In 2007, more than 6,800 people became infected with HIV every day, and new HIV infections outnumbered persons receiving treatment by nearly 3 to 1. Comprehensive HIV prevention-including both condoms and contraceptives-must become a top priority in the continued fight against HIV and AIDS. Because most HIV epidemics are fueled by sexual transmission of the virus, behavior change-including condom use-is critical to stemming the number of new infections.

The international community has repeatedly agreed to meet young people's developmental needs, including those relating to sexual and reproductive health. Yet young people often have little or no access to the information and services they need to make healthy, informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive lives.

Reproductive illnesses and unintended pregnancies undermine economic development by weakening and killing adults in the prime of their working lives, by disrupting and cutting short the lives of their children, and by placing heavy financial and social burdens on families. In most developing-country settings, much of the loss of life and human productivity that is due to poor reproductive health could be prevented with affordable and cost-effective programs.

During the last three decades of the 20th century, demographic transition - a population's shift from high to low rates of birth and death - was associated with continuous declines in the vulnerability of countries to civil conflicts (ethnic wars, antigovernment insurgencies and terrorism resulting in multiple deaths). This relationship suggests that a range of policies and programs that promote demographic transition by encouraging small, healthy and better educated families and longer lives will improve the prospects for political stability in developing countries and enhance global security in the future.

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.