Federal Budget Cuts International Family Planning Funding by 5%
The Federal Budget was approved last month with $615 million in funding for international family planning and reproductive health programs for the current fiscal year (FY2011). The $615 million is a 5% cut from the funding level from last year (FY 2010) which was $648 million. This breaks down to $575 million in bilateral assistance and $40 million for the United Nations Population Fund. While the $615 million is far short of the $1 billion appropriation that advocates of international family planning say is required in order to achieve universal access to reproductive health care by 2015, opponents were gearing up for far larger cuts in funding.
