DutchNews, March
2, 2017
Dutch aid minister Lilianne Ploumen speaks at the launch. Photo: Belga Photo Nicolas Baterlinck via HH |
So
far €181m has been donated to the She Decides campaign, launched by Dutch aid
minister Lilianne Ploumen to boost access to contraception and abortion in developing
countries.
The aim of the project is to mitigate the effect of US president
Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw
$535m in funding for groups that assist with or advocate abortion around the
world.
In total, 57 countries sent delegates to the project’s launch conference
in Belgium on Thursday, which was organised by the Netherlands, Denmark and
Sweden, the Dutch foreign ministry said.
Finland and Sweden have both donated
€10m, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway a further €10m each. The
Bill Gates Foundation has pumped €20m into the fund, but the biggest private
donation came from an anonymous donor who handed over €50m.
Support
‘Last year
alone Dutch support for women’s organisations helped to prevent an estimated
six million unwanted pregnancies and half a million abortions,’ Ploumen said at
the launch of the initiative in February. ‘The decision by the United States
threatens to undermine these results. We mustn’t let that happen.’
One of the
organisations affected, Marie Stopes International, has predicted that Trump’s
move will result in 6.5 million unwanted pregnancies, 2.2 million unsafe
abortions and the deaths of 21,700 young mothers in the next four years.
The
conference saw the launch of a Group of Friends initiative to give leadership to
the organisation.
‘The Brussels conference is … a signal to the world that
women and girls have the right to decide themselves whether or not to become
pregnant, with whom and how many children they want,’ Ploumen said.
Minister #Ploumen: 'We need a Group of Friends to catalyse #SheDecides, strategize, plan, monitor and share information' pic.twitter.com/mNwn9L9Zml— Netherlands 🇳🇱 MFA (@DutchMFA) March 2, 2017
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