250,000 additional maternal and child deaths, 4.3 million additional unsafe abortions and 14.6 million additional unintended pregnancies. These are the horrifying estimated consequences of the UK Government's planned 85% cut to funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), announced this week. Combined with planned cuts to girls' education, this despicable move will inflict grave harm on millions of the most vulnerable girls and women. The aid cuts are also in contradiction with the Prime Minister’s claim that addressing climate change is "the UK’s foremost international priority". According to major scientific initiative Project Drawdown, empowering women and girls through universal access to education and safe, modern family planning is one of the two most powerful solutions we have available to us in limiting warming to 2°C. With climate change effects falling hardest on the poorest communities, including women and girls, this brutal and short-sighted cut will be a double blow. You can read our press statement denouncing the aid cuts here. Please join us in urging UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to reverse them - see Take Action below.
- Robin Maynard, Director, Population Matters
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