In every other area of policy we give aid to organizations and governments without assuming responsibility for the recipient's use of other funds theoretically freed up by our donation. To withhold funding from certain major family planning organizations because they also advocate the legalization of abortion is to say that we will not provide basic humanitarian assistance unless all parties agree to close off public debate on a subject on which there is respectable disagreement. This would be an ironic policy for a nation whose Constitution upholds as a first principle the right of public debate. What the bishops never acknowledge is that family planning assistance saves health and lives and enables women and families to take better advantage of economic and educational opportunities. Infectious diseases, exhaustion, depressed immune function, anemia, fistulae, hemorrhage, and obstructed labor are some of the medical conditions prevented by access to family planning options.
Family planning saves lives.
In addition to saving lives and health by enabling women to avoid unplanned pregnancy, family planning reduces the need for abortion. An estimated 230 million couples in the developing world want and need family planning services. US Aid for Family Planning Overseas , Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1996. A Response to Concerns about Population Assistance , Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1997.