Britain announced a £600 million aid package for women's sexual and reproductive health and rights at the United Nations on Monday in the face of opposition from the United States.

Alok Sharma, the UK’s International Development Secretary, told delegates the UK would promote and defend “women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights” – despite the Trump administration circulating a letter calling for the phrase to be dropped on the grounds that it was being interpreted as a new international right to abortion.

Announcing the new multi-million pound investment, which will pay for family planning services, including abortion, for women in dozens of developing countries, Mr Sharma delivered a firm rebuttal to the US “pro-life” approach.

“The UK is committed to defending and promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights,” Mr Sharma told delegates.

“This UK aid will help give millions of women and girls control over their bodies, so they can choose if, when and how many children they want. That is a basic right that every woman and girl deserves.”

Earlier in the day, reports emerged that the US had urged UN member states deemed sympathetic to their anti-abortion stance to join a “growing coalition” of countries opposing terminations.

View more!

A leaked draft of a letter, reported to have been signed by the secretary of state Mike Pompeo and health and human services secretary Alex Azar, called on delegates to oppose the provision of abortion services through the UN.

“We remain gravely concerned that aggressive efforts to reinterpret international instruments to create a new international right to abortion and to promote international policies that weaken the family have advanced through some United Nations fora,” the letter said.

“Evidence of this is found in references throughout many multilateral global health policy documents to interpret ‘comprehensive sexuality education’ and ‘sexual and reproductive health’ and ‘sexual and reproductive health and rights’ to diminish the role of parents in the most sensitive and personal family-oriented issues.

“The latter has been asserted to mean promotion of abortion, including pressuring countries to abandon religious principles and cultural norms enshrined in law that protect unborn life.”

It is not the first time the US has lobbied the UN to change the language surrounding women’s reproductive health.

In April a clause referencing access to reproductive health at the UN was removed in a resolution condemning sexual violence, because Trump's administration said the wording implied support for abortions.

View more!

And under Trump, the Mexico City policy, known as the “global gag rule”, has been reintroduced and its scope dramatically expanded.

The policy effectively prevents any charity which relies on US funding from offering or even advising on abortions. While previous versions of the policy placed restrictions on roughly $575 million of funding, the current legislation applies to roughly $8.8 billion of US aid.

Sarah Shaw, head of advocacy at the family planning provider Marie Stopes, told the Telegraph that while groupings of “anti-choice countries are not unusual in these policy spaces”, the current US approach is giving them added legitimacy.

“What’s so concerning right now is that the current rollback of rights is mandated by the US government,” she said. “Having this weight really gives anti-choice groups much more clout.”

The UK was praised for its continued commitment to abortion and contraception services – despite its “special relationship” with the US.

The UK’s latest funding announcement represents its biggest ever standalone investment in projects to improve access to family planning for women in developing countries.

Between 2020 and 2025, the Department for International Development (Dfid) will spend some £600 million on family planning supplies – including condoms, the contraceptive pill and safe abortions.

View more!

The funding will give more than 20 million women access to family planning services each year, stop roughly five million unintended pregnancies and prevent at least 1.5 million potentially fatal unsafe abortions, according to Dfid.

The majority of funding will go to UNFPA Supplies, which is the world’s largest provider of family planning supplies and operates in 46 countries across the globe.

A smaller proportion of the funding will go towards a new programme with private sector suppliers, in an attempt to cut the prices of contraceptives and maternal health medicines for the world’s poorest countries.

“It’s fantastic to see Dfid showing international leadership on this, and the fact that it’s backed up with financial resource commitment with continuity up until 2025 is fantastic,” said Bethan Cobley, director of policy and partnerships at Marie Stopes.

“It’s also crucial that this has been framed as being important to give women and girls control over their bodies – this is about basic rights around choice and access,” she added.

Natalia Kanem, UNFPA executive director, said: “To do what is right for these women and girls, and their societies, our ambition must be matched by concrete action and resources.

“With this announcement of additional funding to UNFPA, the UK Government is upholding the fundamental principle that reproductive rights are human rights and that no one should be left behind.”

View more!

A spokeswoman from the International Women’s Health Coalition said: “The UK’s announcement is a powerful commitment to the health and rights of women and girls worldwide... The power to make decisions over your own sexuality and reproduction are at the core of your freedom as a human being.

“This is in stark contrast the policies of the United States – like the Global Gag Rule and the decision to de-fund UNFPA – which undermine access to critical health care services ranging from contraception and safe and legal abortion, to cancer screenings and HIV and AIDS care.

“Yet, even with these substantial investments, it remains difficult to offset the dangers of US policy given its outsized contribution to global health spending,” she added.

Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security