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: Women's rights

News from Population Matters.

  • Progress in family planning – but a long road ahead

    Last week, Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) released its annual report. The project is designed to enable 120 more million women and girls in the world’s poorest countries to use modern contraception…

  • Running to stand still? Meeting family planning targets.

    A new report shows that the world is still not on track to meet contraceptive use goals by 2020, largely due to lack of government action and funding shortfalls.  Slow progress The…

  • UN population report: progress, but much to do

    Placeholder lead The new State of the World Population 2018 report published by the United Nations Population Fund highlights the importance of having the power to choose the timing, number, and spacing…

  • Tanzanian president: “birth control is for the lazy”

    UPDATE 25 September 2018 Since this story was written, the Tanzanian government has ordered a US health charity to withdraw television advertisements promoting family planning. This worrying development suggests that…

  • Ending child marriage “morally right, economically smart”

    A new report examining the impact of child marriage in Ethiopia has highlighted the many devastating impacts it has on individuals and society. More than one-in-three girls are married below…

  • Empowering women and melted ice: PM conference 2018

    On Saturday, Population Matters’s 2018 conference, Climate change and Us: more feet, more heat? took place in London. Despite appalling weather in the run up to the event, hundreds of…

  • Global Gag Rule – one year on

    A year ago, US President Trump reinstated and expanded the Mexico City Policy. This led to major funding cuts to family planning services globally. A year on, the effects are starting…

  • Imams support family planning in Senegal

    Public health officials and NGOs in Senegal turn to mosques to expand the provision of family planning, The Christian Science Monitor reports. A key first step, results indicate. Senegal is over 90%…

  • Challenging the Global Gag Rule

    Population Matters is supporting a range of international efforts to defend family planning following the Trump administration’s ban on overseas aid for organisations providing abortion or information about it. Please…

  • President Trump reinstates ‘Global Gag Rule’

    On 23 January 2017, family planning services worldwide received a blow when President Trump reinstated and expanded, the ‘Global Gag Rule’. The policy stipulates that no US overseas aid money…