Family planning can prevent 25 percent of all maternal and infant deaths by avoiding unintended pregnancies and spacing births. The Paul amendment would close the most effective avenue to prevent abortions. Certainly we all consider abortion a failure, and if we want to reduce the number of abortions, we should support family planning. The World Health Organization estimates that 40 percent of unintended pregnancies end in abortion. That is a tragedy.
Family planning enables couples to prevent unintended pregnancies.
Large declines in numbers of abortions have occurred due to the expansion of family planning services in many countries across the globe, including South Korea, Chile, Hungary, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Colombia, and Mexico. This amendment would end a 30-year program that is recognized as one of the most successful components of U.S. foreign assistance. And this is not about the United States going to another country and forcing anything on anyone. This is a voluntary program that the countries asked for. The discussion in this bill is about curtailing funding for family planning.