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Support Real Investment in Family Planning: It's Time to Double the Money

Target: U.S. Congress
Sponsored by: Population Connection

What Will $1 Billion Buy? Security. Stability. Survival.

Few investments promise as positive a return as family planning. But in the last decade, U.S. funding for international family planning programs has declined by almost 40%. At the same time, the number of women of reproductive age in the developing world has increased by more than 275 million.

Today, more than 200 million women in the developing world wish to delay or end childbearing but do not have access to modern contraceptives. Lack of access to family planning services contributes to a host of devastating consequences for the entire world: resource insecurity, social instability, and maternal and child death.

If the United States wants to meet these 21st century challenges, then it is time for a change in direction: a return to real investment in family planning.

An investment of $1 billion – roughly double our current spending – represents the United States fair share of the total cost of meeting the existing unmet need for family planning in the developing world, and it is a good investment in a healthy future for all of us.

Sign the petition, and let Congress know that real investment in family planning will reap massive rewards for the whole planet.

deadline: Ongoing...
goal: 20,000

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Dear Representative [Last Name]:

Few investments promise as positive a return as family planning. Every additional $100 million provided for family planning will allow 3.6 million additional women to use modern contraceptives and will result in: 2.1 million fewer unintended pregnancies; 825,000 fewer abortions; nearly a million fewer unplanned births; 70,000 fewer infant deaths; and, 4,000 fewer maternal deaths.

Real investment in family planning will:

Save the lives of women and children and improve quality of life for everyone.
Every year, more than half a million women die of pregnancy related causes worldwide and more than fifty million women suffer serious complications related to pregnancy or childbirth. Nearly all of these deaths and injuries are preventable. In fact, universal access to contraceptives could prevent nearly half of all maternal deaths and a significant proportion of infant deaths. The link between expanded access to family planning and increased maternal and child survival has been proven over and over in countries in every part of the world.

Today, there are 200 million women who would like to limit or space pregnancies but have no access to modern methods of contraceptives. Demand for birth control is projected to increase by 40 percent in the next fifteen years. It's time for the United States to renew its commitment to make a real investment in family planning.

Protect the environment and relieve pressure on natural resources.
Continuing population growth in the developing world contributes to resource scarcity and human suffering. Population growth leads to the destruction of forests, the spread of deserts, the pollution and over-fishing of oceans and waterways, and it is a major contributor to the climate change crisis. The end results are resource depletion, environmental degradation and malnutrition.

Failure to give people the ability to make their own choices about childbearing will make solutions to all of these challenges significantly more difficult to find.

Encourage social stability and decrease conflict.
Resource scarcity and other population pressures place stress on fragile governments and other social structures. Many poor countries struggle to maintain health care, schooling and urban infrastructure in the face of rapid population growth. Countries that lack the means to provide the most basic needs of their people -- food, water, housing education, employment -- are at significant risk of instability and conflict. In countries with significant unmet need for contraceptives, high fertility rates are leading to "youth bulges" -- a high proportion of young people with little or no hope of education and employment.

As you know, the United States was once a global leader in supporting family planning, but our contributions to international family planning programs over the past decade have been inadequate. Indeed, our nation is contributing significantly less than it did fourteen years ago. When inflation is considered, we are providing 40 percent less than we did in 1995.

It's time to reverse this trend. That is why I urge you to support significant new funding and policy language to strengthen family planning programs in the FY '09 State Department, Foreign Operations Appropriations bill. Specifically, I ask that you provide a total of $1 billion for family planning in the developing world, including $63.5 million for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). In addition, I urge you to include new policy language to ensure that the UNFPA funding is not withheld by the administration.

To paraphrase former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, family planning builds stronger families, stronger communities and stronger countries. An investment of $1 billion represents the United States fair share of the total cost of meeting the existing unmet need for family planning in the developing world and it is a good investment in a healthy future for all of us.

[Your Comments]

Sincerely,

[Your Name]
[Your Address]

We Support Real Investment in Family Planning!

# 10,050:

7:00 am PDT, May 12, Brian McConville, Virginia

# 10,049:

6:50 am PDT, May 12, Helen Allard, Louisiana

# 10,048:

6:41 am PDT, May 12, Dawn Andrea Lynch, Connecticut

# 10,047:

6:40 am PDT, May 12, Carmelo Salvat, Puerto Rico

# 10,046:

6:38 am PDT, May 12, Bonny Gatchel, Texas

# 10,045:

6:27 am PDT, May 12, Name not displayed, Texas

# 10,044:

6:26 am PDT, May 12, Lacy Pierce, Kansas
We can't just sit there waiting for the fundamentalists to get their heads out of the clouds when it comes to sex and childrearing, we have to take some real-live action whether they like it or not! And to that person I once saw with the bumper sticker on their van that said, Saying There Are Too Many Children Is Like Saying There Are Too Many Flowers. Well, wake up and smell the coffee, flowers are weeds that only need soil and various amounts of water while children are human beings that require far more resources to survive. LET'S GO, GO, GO!

# 10,043:

6:22 am PDT, May 12, Lisa Finkenbine, Ohio

# 10,042:

6:20 am PDT, May 12, Ted Casselman, Canada

# 10,041:

6:14 am PDT, May 12, Name not displayed, Oklahoma

# 10,040:

6:13 am PDT, May 12, William Weaver, Michigan

# 10,039:

5:54 am PDT, May 12, DobieMax Wojcik, Massachusetts
Teens having babies are not good. Throwing babies into dumpsters are not good.

# 10,038:

5:49 am PDT, May 12, Cathryn Harbor, Virginia

# 10,037:

5:47 am PDT, May 12, Just Me Cat, Ohio

# 10,036:

5:45 am PDT, May 12, Jeanie Kahus, Massachusetts

# 10,035:

5:43 am PDT, May 12, Leslie Johnson, Virginia

# 10,034:

5:37 am PDT, May 12, Betsy Bruner, Michigan

# 10,033:

5:36 am PDT, May 12, Anne-Marie Hart, Indiana

# 10,032:

5:33 am PDT, May 12, Sheila Di Salvo, Massachusetts

# 10,031:

5:32 am PDT, May 12, Marianne Cochrane, New Hampshire

# 10,030:

5:32 am PDT, May 12, Brian Null, Texas

# 10,029:

5:30 am PDT, May 12, Pamelaanne Brooks, Maryland

# 10,028:

5:19 am PDT, May 12, Nancy Kirby, Florida

# 10,027:

5:15 am PDT, May 12, Bethany Bulgrin-Tschan, Wisconsin

# 10,026:

5:00 am PDT, May 12, Carol Woody, Illinois

# 10,025:

4:54 am PDT, May 12, Dawn Bolin, Ohio

# 10,024:

4:41 am PDT, May 12, Sarah Annis, Connecticut

# 10,023:

4:29 am PDT, May 12, Ed Bodnovich Jr., Ohio

# 10,022:

4:27 am PDT, May 12, Terry Keener, Texas

# 10,021:

4:02 am PDT, May 12, Gena Bukur, Florida

# 10,020:

3:58 am PDT, May 12, Gene Anderson, Oklahoma

# 10,019:

3:27 am PDT, May 12, Jessica Lam, California

# 10,018:

2:39 am PDT, May 12, Jay T, Wisconsin

# 10,017:

1:20 am PDT, May 12, Mark Rawlings, Pennsylvania

# 10,016:

1:17 am PDT, May 12, Simon Robson, United Kingdom

# 10,015:

12:15 am PDT, May 12, Laura Hoti, Connecticut

# 10,014:

12:07 am PDT, May 12, Name not displayed, Arizona

# 10,013:

11:47 pm PDT, May 11, Jazirae Neokai, Oregon

# 10,012:

11:43 pm PDT, May 11, Radha McAlpine, Florida

# 10,011:

11:39 pm PDT, May 11, Robert Heatherington, Oregon
It only makes sense. This planet can't sustain constant population growth and we have no other place to go.

# 10,010:

11:25 pm PDT, May 11, Cynthia Kay, Pennsylvania

# 10,009:

11:05 pm PDT, May 11, Craig Cross, Maryland

# 10,008:

11:03 pm PDT, May 11, Mark Giordani, California

# 10,007:

11:01 pm PDT, May 11, Miranda Richards, California

# 10,006:

10:53 pm PDT, May 11, Maria Lotempio, California

# 10,005:

10:48 pm PDT, May 11, Sarah Bone, New York

# 10,004:

10:44 pm PDT, May 11, Cayenne Engel, Nevada

# 10,003:

10:41 pm PDT, May 11, Name not displayed, Arizona
stop the irs from giveing breaks to people who have more than two kids.I saw a woman on a tv show who was braging how much money the irs gave her for birthing so many kids she 5 at the time and she said she was gonna get pregnant again what a greedy hag.What part of this is right I just don,t see it.

# 10,002:

10:40 pm PDT, May 11, William A Chengelis, Colorado

# 10,001:

10:30 pm PDT, May 11, Laura Schaap, Montana

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Support Real Investment in Family Planning: It's Time to Double the Money

This petition has been closed.