Family Planning > Bombs
This week, the hearts of the global health community collectively broke a little as the United States withdrew its support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), whose stated mission is to “ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.”
The United States said it was dropping support because the agency “supports, or participates in the management of, a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.” The UNFPA says this claim is “erroneous,” and that this abrupt funding cut could trigger more global instability, as dollars spent in diplomacy can combat terrorism more effectively than military spending.
Speaking of which. It seems darkly fitting that in the same week the U.S. pulled back $32 million in global health funding — much of which would have gone to vulnerable women and children — it spent over twice that in a single military attack in Syria last night. (Each of the 60 Tomahawk missiles deployed cost between $1 and $1.4 million.) We at The Development Set are watching carefully for how this move could further destabilize the region and set it up for an ever-expanding refugee crisis.
To honor the importance of family planning, both this and next week will be focused on family planning, reproductive health, and women’s health.
Hope you enjoy our work — and if you have any thoughts on how we can improve, feel free to email me (sarika@honeyguidemedia.org). As this week has uniquely proven to me, we’re in this together.
In Deep Red America, The Rise of the Abortion Doula
“Just as a laboring patient needs emotional and physical support in the delivery process, women accessing abortion care also need the same support,” said Sabine. “We consider doula services as an important component to reproductive justice.”
This story has gotten a particularly strong reaction from our community. In the words of Pepsi: join the conversation!
Where Pregnancy Isn’t A Death Sentence
By Linus Unah
Fantastic dispatch from Nigeria’s southwestern state of Ondo. In a few short years, with some focused interventions and community involvement, they tremendously reduced the chance of a women dying during childbirth. Fantastic lessons for the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.
Abortion Is Legal in South Africa — But Illegal Clinics Are Thriving. Why?
There’s a fascinating paradox for people accessing abortions in South Africa: free abortions are sometimes less accessible than costly ones. Even in towns where abortion services are available, the legal ones aren’t advertised as publicly as the illegal ones.
