UK commits £254m to boost women’s maternal healthcare choices

A £254m UK funding package will expand reproductive health access for millions of women and girls across 54 countries.

The government said the investment will support family planning for more than 15 million women each year and could prevent 14 million unintended pregnancies and more than 35,000 maternal deaths by 2028.

The funding will expand access to contraceptives and safe abortion products, as well as medicines and equipment for maternal and newborn healthcare.

Women will be supported to access family planning products including condoms, pills, implants and coils.

The programme will also provide equipment to improve early detection of post-partum haemorrhage, severe bleeding after childbirth, and treatments shown to reduce severe bleeding by almost two thirds.

Kirsty McNeill, minister for development, said: “It is a scandal that women and girls are denied the fundamental right to make informed choices about their own body, free from coercion, discrimination and violence.

“Every woman and girl should be able to make decisions about her own future. That choice can mean staying in school, finding work or surviving childbirth.

“The funding I have announced will help give millions more women and girls across the world autonomy over their bodies, control over their futures, and the chance to fulfil their full potential.”

The funding will be delivered through the CHOICES programme, working with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) across more than 50 of the world’s poorest countries, including conflict zones.

An estimated 259 million women who want to avoid or delay pregnancy are not using safe, modern contraceptive methods.

The government said it will also work with national governments to support sustainable health systems as countries transition away from donor funding.

Maternal deaths have fallen by 40 per cent since 2000, but progress has been uneven, with 70 per cent occurring in sub-Saharan Africa.

CHOICES operates in more than 50 countries, including Afghanistan, Chad, the Gambia, Malawi, Sudan and Yemen. It focuses on countries with the highest rates of death in childbirth and lowest rates of contraceptive use, as well as providing emergency support during humanitarian crises.