MEDIA RELEASE
Released By:
Smith
The Government has recently undertaken a review of the Family Planning Guidelines which apply to Australia's overseas development assistance program.
The current guidelines, which have been in place since 1996, prohibit any overseas development funding from being used for activities which involve the termination of a pregnancy.
This is a difficult issue and the Government recognises that there are strong views, firmly held, on all sides.
The Government has now completed its review and I have decided to change the Family Planning Guidelines for Australia's overseas development assistance program to support the same range of family planning services for women in developing countries as are supported for women in Australia, subject to the national laws of the relevant nation concerned.
Avoiding terminations through family planning services and advice will continue to be the focus of Australian funded activities. Australian and international NGOs will continue to be able to choose what services they deliver in line with their own philosophies and policies.
Australia will also provide additional funding of up to $15 million over four years through UN agencies and NGOs for family planning and reproductive health activities to help reduce maternal deaths. This is part of Australia's commitment to advance the Millennium Development Goals and to improve child and maternal health.
The United Nations estimates that universal family planning could save the lives of as many as 175,000 women each year.
It is a tragedy that globally there are an estimated 42 million terminations performed each year. Almost half of these are estimated to be medically unsafe. Around 68,000 women die each year as a result of unsafe abortions and approximately 220,000 children lose their mothers in this way.
Since the introduction of the Family Planning Guidelines in 1996, there has been a significant decline in funding from the aid program across the range of family planning activities from 0.44% ($6.9m) in 1995-96 to only 0.07% ($2.3m) in 2006/07 adversely affecting the capacity to deliver better outcomes in maternal and child health.
The Government is committed to reversing this trend and working towards better maternal and child health outcomes.