Philanthropist Melinda Gates says millions of women around the world will be prevented from getting contraception that can better their lives due to President Donald Trump's foreign aid cuts.
“Contraceptives are actually one of the greatest anti-poverty innovations the world has ever seen,” Gates wrote in a USA Today op-ed Sunday decrying Trump’s cuts.
In the article, Gates describes how Indonesia has used foreign aid, including contraceptive assistance, to go from an undeveloped, poor country to the world’s eighth largest economy and a major U.S. trading partner.
Gates called Indonesia “a steady ally in an unstable world,” partly because it has implemented family planning so that women can decide how many children to have, keep those children in school longer, and work outside the home if they so desire. Most women there have gone from having five or six children to only two or three.
Indonesia is only one example of how foreign funding for contraceptives can impact poor nations positively, Gates asserted.
Gates, wife of billionaire Microsoft owner Bill Gates, is putting her money where her mouth is in this fight. The Gates Foundation started a $30 million program in 2016 to provide more access to contraceptives and reduce unplanned pregnancies for teens in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Nigeria, according to The Independent. Her goal is to get contraceptives into the hands of 120 million poor women worldwide, and U.S. foreign aid could help to reach that goal.
“Now is not the time to turn our backs,” Gates wrote in USA Today. “At home and overseas, there are people depending on us.”
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