Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Barbara Follett (Labour). It was answered on Wednesday, 28 February 2007 on behalf of the Department for International Development.

Maternal Mortality

Question: I thank my hon. Friend for that reply. However, with one woman dying every minute of every day of every year in the developing world, what can he do to persuade the United States Government to lift the gag rule that was introduced by the Reagan Administration, which prevents family planning organisations in the developing world that receive funding from that country from advising termination in the case of high-risk pregnancies? It is estimated that that costs 150,000 lives—unnecessary deaths—every year.

Answer: I share my hon. Friend’s view on the impact of the global gag rule. We have a very different view from our American friends’ on this issue and we continue to encourage them to reconsider their position. In the meantime, we continue to support a variety of international organisations that provide access to safe abortion services, such as the United Nations Population Fund and UNICEF. We were the first donor to support the International Planned Parenthood Federation’s global safe abortion action fund.

Secondary information