As stated by the UN, “Family planning could bring more benefits to more people at less cost than any other single technology now available to the human race.”

Dollar for dollar, there is no better way to assist the developing world to break the cycles of overpopulation, famine, conflict and continuing poverty than by providing access to voluntary family planning.

Wherever seriously pursued, it has had extraordinarily positive results in alleviating poverty, improving education and fostering gender equity.

An estimated 222 million women in the Third World need and want to use contraception, but do not have reliable, affordable access to it. Without it, there are approximately 62 million unintended pregnancies every year.

Each year, almost 20 million women and girls in developing countries have unsafe abortions, from which 68,000 die. Overall, almost 300,000 die of pregnancy-related causes (including illegal abortion) while another 10 million suffer from a temporary or permanent disability.

Human numbers are increasing by 1.2 million people every 5 days. By signing and sharing this petition, we stand a chance of ensuring that voluntary family planning as part of overseas development aid is a priority.

The benefits to be gained are enormous; the prospects if ignored, increasingly grim.