A health care conversation with a young person is incomplete if it does not mention sexual health, including safe, consensual, pleasurable sex, contraception and infection prevention. Yet despite this, so many young women and girls do not have access to the education or information they need to make safe and informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health, including on abortions.

Ahead of World Population Day 2021, FIGO HQ spoke with Jill Sheffield, Chair of FIGO’s Committee on Contraception and Family Planning, about the implications of the pandemic for the fulfilment of women and girls’ sexual and reproductive health and rights. We also discussed the need for interventions to ensure the continuation of family planning services during and after the pandemic.

In November 2020, it was announced that the UK Government would cut its overseas aid budget from 0.7% gross national income to 0.5%. It has now been revealed that this cut includes an 85% drop in funding to UNFPA’s flagship programme for family planning.

When the PPIUD Initiative was first conceptualised in 2013, the focus was on reducing maternal mortality, in accordance with Millenium Development Goal 5 (MDG 5). It was well established that a 30% reduction in maternal mortality can be achieved by offering contraception to women in the reproductive age group. We knew that nearly 2.2 million women did not have access to contraception, even if they wanted it, and we wanted to reduce the number of abortions for unintended pregnancies.