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Focus on Family Health Worldwide Act

Our Position: support
Bill Number: HR4188
Sponsor: Rep. Betty McCollum
Legislative Session: 2006

The Focus on Family Health Worldwide Act would authorize increased funds for family planning programs implemented by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).  Specifically, this bipartisan bill would increase authorized funding for USAID’s voluntary family planning programs to $600 million in FY 2007, and then $100 million for the following four years, reaching $1 billion in FY 2011. The bill also prioritizes funding to countries with crucial family planning and maternal and child health needs, where contraceptive shortages are expected, and to areas where high population growth rates and biological diversity intersect. This is vital to the health of families and the environment.

Over the past twenty years, international family planning funding has fallen by over $206 million dollars. At the same time, the number of women entering reproductive age has increased. U.S. family planning programs designed to reduce infant and maternal mortality, empower couples to choose the number and spacing of their children, and increase the health of families and the environment, are under increasing strain. This bipartisan bill offers a common-sense, common-ground solution that will improve the health of people and the planet.

Status

The Focus on Family Health Worldwide Act was introduced in the House on November 1, 2005.  For more information, including full text of the bill and a complete list of co-sponsoring Representatives, click here. To read Rep. Betty McCollum's press release, click here. 

Action Needed

We must build strong bipartisan support for this vital legislation.

·          Contact your Representative today and ask him or her to co-sponsor the Focus on Family Health Act (H.R. 4188).

o         Click here to find your Representative and his or her contact information.

o         Click here for a list of current co-sponsoring Representatives. If your Representative is already a co-sponsor, write or call to thank them for their leadership on this issue!

Contact

Sarah Fairchild

Global Population and Environment Program Director

sarah.fairchild@sierraclub.org

Background

U.S. support for international family planning programs – providing contraception, prenatal care and HIV/AIDS prevention – serve 20 million couples in 50 of the world’s poorest nations. But there are still 120 million married couples who would like to extend the time between pregnancies or who have had the children they wanted, but do not have access to modern contraception. Family planning programs are cost effective and integral to health and sustainable development goals. For many women, these health programs are the point of entry into the health system that provides access to other critical health services, as well as enables them to decide if, when and how many children to have. This bipartisan legislation will help expand the services available to those seeking them. It is a step toward meeting the internationally agreed goals set forth during the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), of ensuring universal access to family planning to all individuals of appropriate age by the year 2015.