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| UK to host summit seeking extra funds for family planning | UK to host summit seeking extra funds for family planning |
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| Britain will lead efforts to secure extra funding for family planning at an international summit in London, ministers have said, amid concern about Donald Trump’s decision to ban US financial support for organisations involved in abortion services overseas. | Britain will lead efforts to secure extra funding for family planning at an international summit in London, ministers have said, amid concern about Donald Trump’s decision to ban US financial support for organisations involved in abortion services overseas. |
| Priti Patel, the international development secretary, said the summit would take place in July, and the UK was aiming for a “step-change on family planning”. | Priti Patel, the international development secretary, said the summit would take place in July, and the UK was aiming for a “step-change on family planning”. |
| The event was planned before Trump signed an executive order reintroducing the so-called “global gag rule” relating to abortion services. However, it is likely to be an opportunity for those involved in family planning to address concerns about the shortfall in funding that result from the US president’s move. | The event was planned before Trump signed an executive order reintroducing the so-called “global gag rule” relating to abortion services. However, it is likely to be an opportunity for those involved in family planning to address concerns about the shortfall in funding that result from the US president’s move. |
| Patel revealed the date for the summit in a letter to Labour MPs who have called on the government to help make up the shortfall. She said the event “will help secure renewed global commitment to family planning services, with a particular focus on the poorest and most vulnerable”. | Patel revealed the date for the summit in a letter to Labour MPs who have called on the government to help make up the shortfall. She said the event “will help secure renewed global commitment to family planning services, with a particular focus on the poorest and most vulnerable”. |
| She added: “It will secure measurable and accelerated commitments from priority partner countries, action and funding to tackle long-running problems with commodity supply chains, expanded financial commitments, new approaches to reaching young women, and more concerted global action to meet the needs of women and girls in humanitarian settings.” | She added: “It will secure measurable and accelerated commitments from priority partner countries, action and funding to tackle long-running problems with commodity supply chains, expanded financial commitments, new approaches to reaching young women, and more concerted global action to meet the needs of women and girls in humanitarian settings.” |
| It will be held in cooperation with the UN and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which said this week that Trump’s move could affect millions of women and girls, endangering their lives and those of their babies. | It will be held in cooperation with the UN and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which said this week that Trump’s move could affect millions of women and girls, endangering their lives and those of their babies. |
| Trump signed the executive order on his first full day in office. It is expected to lead to a dramatic fall in funding for family planning and women’s health programmes in the developing world from the world’s biggest donor. Bill Gates said it could “create a void that even a foundation like ours can’t fill”. | Trump signed the executive order on his first full day in office. It is expected to lead to a dramatic fall in funding for family planning and women’s health programmes in the developing world from the world’s biggest donor. Bill Gates said it could “create a void that even a foundation like ours can’t fill”. |
| Republican presidents since Ronald Reagan in 1984 have imposed the policy, while their Democrat counterparts have lifted it. The rule strips funds from any organisation that “performs or actively promotes abortion as a method of family planning” overseas. | Republican presidents since Ronald Reagan in 1984 have imposed the policy, while their Democrat counterparts have lifted it. The rule strips funds from any organisation that “performs or actively promotes abortion as a method of family planning” overseas. |
| The Labour MPs Stephen Doughty, Stella Creasy, Gareth Thomas, Stephen Twigg, Luciana Berger and Anna Turley called on Patel to “take urgent steps on funding and policy, as the Dutch government has and as the UK government has done previously, to mitigate the impact of this decision”. | The Labour MPs Stephen Doughty, Stella Creasy, Gareth Thomas, Stephen Twigg, Luciana Berger and Anna Turley called on Patel to “take urgent steps on funding and policy, as the Dutch government has and as the UK government has done previously, to mitigate the impact of this decision”. |
| Patel said she was still considering the best use of the UK’s aid money. “You raised the suggestion by the Dutch government for a new global funding mechanism. As more details emerge, we will be in a position to decide whether this would be the most effective use for some of the UK’s significant and growing investment in family planning,” she said. | Patel said she was still considering the best use of the UK’s aid money. “You raised the suggestion by the Dutch government for a new global funding mechanism. As more details emerge, we will be in a position to decide whether this would be the most effective use for some of the UK’s significant and growing investment in family planning,” she said. |
| Doughty said some welcome steps had been announced but he was “disappointed Priti Patel has not given a clear unequivocal commitment to help do what she can to reverse the funding shortfall which will result from the global gag on women’s organisations. Dfid has done it in the past, as have other countries, and we should be leading again.” | Doughty said some welcome steps had been announced but he was “disappointed Priti Patel has not given a clear unequivocal commitment to help do what she can to reverse the funding shortfall which will result from the global gag on women’s organisations. Dfid has done it in the past, as have other countries, and we should be leading again.” |
| Gareth Thomas, the Labour MP for Harrow West, said he was not impressed with the response and Dfid’s promises. | |
| “Priti Patel fails to recognise the scale of the problem Donald Trump’s resigning of the global gag rule means for safe abortion and family planning services in the developing world,” he said. “Her dismal response means that Dfid money sitting idle in World Bank trust funds won’t be redeployed to maintain vital sexual and reproductive health services that Trump has put at risk and which could still bemaintained. | |
| “Her’s is an abject surrender to the Republican hard right when she should, as I did, have stood up to them and put British aid money in to plug an American-made funding hole.” | |
| Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow, said it was a “shockingly bad, indifferent response” and called on Patel to say whether the UK would send a representative to a family planning conference in Brussels next month looking at how the funding shortfall caused by the Trump order would be filled. | |
| “It’s no good coming to parliament and saying you think Donald Trump is doing the wrong thing, and then not putting your money where your mouth is, especially when others are,” Creasy said. |