International Planned Parenthood Federation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The International Planned Parenthood Federation is a global non-governmental organization with the broad aims of promoting sexual and reproductive health, and advocating the right of individuals to make their own choices in family planning. It was first formed in 1952 in Bombay, India, and now consists of more than 149 Member Associations working in more than 189 countries. IPPF is highly devolved, and is organized into six regions.
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[edit] Purpose
Member Associations provide non-profit family planning services, sexual health and abuse prevention training and education. Their goals include giving clients the information necessary to make informed sexual health decisions, promoting continuing sexual health, making available high quality sexual health services, improving the overall health of low income individuals, and using democratic organization and the leadership of volunteers to promote these goals.
[edit] Funding
The IPPF is financially supported by governments, trusts, and foundations including the European Commission and the United Nations Population Fund for special projects. Half of the balance of their funding comes from government official development assistance programmes. To achieve their goals as an organization, the IPPF often collaborates with the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF), and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). IPPF is a prominent lobbyist in the European Union: specifically, for the European Council and the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). It is the only non-governmental organization (NGO) that focuses on sexual health and reproductive rights to qualify for Consultative Status with the Council of Europe. This allows the IPPF to sit in on the Parliamentary Assembly.
[edit] Controversy
Annually, there are approximately 19 million unsafe abortions worldwide (World Health Organization figures), the vast majority amongst poor women in developing countries. Unsafe abortion is one of the leading causes of maternal deaths (accounting for approximately 13% of all maternal deaths annually), while literally millions of women worldwide suffer injury, illness and disability as a result of unsafe and botched abortions.
IPPF is a rights based organization that advocates for legal and accessible safe abortion services. This has led IPPF into conflict with conservative social forces, the Catholic Church and the current US Administration of President George W. Bush. The Bush Administration defunded IPPF by reinstating the Global Gag Rule (also known as The Mexico City Policy).
First introduced in 1984 and reintroduced by President George W. Bush in 2001, the Global Gag Rule puts non-governmental organizations from outside the United States in an untenable position, forcing them to choose between carrying out their work safeguarding the health and rights of women or losing their funding from the US. The Gag Rule prohibits organizations in receipt of US funds from using their own money to provide abortion information, services and care, or even discussing abortion or criticizing unsafe abortion. It even prevents organizations from working on these issues at the request of their own governments.
The Gag Rule severely restricts freedom of speech; it interferes with the doctor-client relationship; and hinders balanced consideration of liberalizing abortion laws based on public health concerns and human rights. Around the world this has had a dramatic impact on the ability of NGOs working on sexual and reproductive health and women's rights who have rejected the Gag Rule, and consequently lost much of their funding, to provide full sexual and reproductive health services. The policy has restricted the freedom of speech and association of those organisations who are bound by its regulations. However, anti-abortion advocacy is allowed, underscoring the ideological nature of the Gag Rule.
The Gag Rule fails in its stated intent to reduce the global incidence of abortion. Rather, by dramatically impairing the delivery of sexual and reproductive health services, its actual impact has been to increase the number of unintended pregnancies and the abortions that inevitably follow.
The Global Gag Rule is notable for many reasons, one being that it would be illegal for the US Government to impose it upon US organizations as abortion is legal in the United States and the Gag Rule would breech the Constitutional right to freedom of speech.
