Melinda Gates’ $1 Billion Gender Equality Initiative Will Fail If It Ignores Abortion Rights

Melinda Gates’ $1 Billion Gender Equality Initiative Will Fail If It Ignores Abortion Rights

Oct 18, 2019
Danielle Stouck

Earlier this month, philanthropist Melinda Gates announced that, over the next ten years, she will invest $1 billion in new efforts to achieve gender equality in the United States.

This is certainly cause for optimism. Here’s the best-case scenario: Gates’ investment through her company, Pivotal Ventures, will support feminist organizations and activists fighting for a seat at the decision-making table. Priority for funding will be given to the historically marginalized women in this country—including women of color, poor women, indigenous women, disabled women, queer women, and trans women.

Continued: https://rewire.news/article/2019/10/18/melinda-gatess-1-billion-gender-equality-initiative-will-fail-if-it-ignores-abortion-rights/


Contraception is Lifesaving but Often Out of Reach

Contraception is Lifesaving but Often Out of Reach
Family Planning Donors Should Assess Effects of US Funding Restrictions

Nisha Varia
Advocacy Director, Women’s Rights Division
July 10, 2017

Tomorrow, the Family Planning Summit will take place in London. There, governments, donors, and civil society will meet to review progress and recommit to enabling 120 million more women worldwide to access a modern form of contraception by 2020.

Family planning is lifesaving. Complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the second leading cause of death for adolescents ages 15 to 19 globally and cause 800 women and girls to die each day. The World Health Organization estimates that at least 22,000 women die from abortion-related complications each year.

Continued at source: Human Rights Watch: https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/07/10/contraception-lifesaving-often-out-reach


UK: Women are having abortions because their contraception doesn’t work

Women are having abortions because their contraception doesn't work

Ann Furedi, Chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas)

7 July 2017

Women who have abortions are not careless about contraception. They are not ignorant and they are not generally unable to get hold of it. The uncomfortable truth is that contraception lets women down.

Yes, sometimes we don’t use it properly – a condom is bound to fail if you don’t get it out of the packet, and you can’t expect the pill to be reliable unless you take it reliably. But that’s only part of the story.

Continued at source: The Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/women-having-abortions-contraception-doesnt-work/


Trump’s ‘global gag rule’ could endanger millions of women and children, ​Bill and Melinda Gates​ warn

Trump's 'global gag rule' could endanger millions of women and children, ​Bill and Melinda Gates​ warn

Exclusive: Bill and Melinda Gates warn of dire impact of order that blocks US funding for family planning and health services

Sarah Boseley Health editor

Tuesday 14 February 2017

The “global gag rule” imposed by Donald Trump, blocking US funds to any organisation involved in abortion advice and care overseas, could impact millions of women and girls, endangering their lives and those of their babies, Bill and Melinda Gates have warned.

The changes are expected to result in funding from the world’s biggest donor to family planning and women’s health programmes in the developing world being slashed. It could, Bill Gates told the Guardian, “create a void that even a foundation like ours can’t fill”.

Continued at source: The Guardian:https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/feb/14/bill-and-melinda-gates-trumps-global-gag-rule-endangers-millions-women-girls-us-funding