Alex White (Labour)

An estimated 200 million women in the world, despite what the Catholic Church and others say, wish to delay or avoid pregnancies without availing of family planning. I cannot understand why a policy would be in place anywhere to deny women access to family planning. I ask all Members and not only Senator Mullen why we would deny family planning to women.

It is correct that the UNFPA and other organisations should promote family planning in every country and not, as Senator O'Malley said, only in rich countries where people can afford it. Demand for contraception is increasing not only in the coercive sense where people are told to use contraception to limit their families but because they make a free decision to do so. That does not have to flow from the coercion of women. One in three deaths relating to pregnancy and childbirth could be avoided if women who wanted effective childbirth had access to family planning. An estimated 19 million unsafe abortions are carried out each year in developing countries. What will be done about that? Is it not correct that an organisation such as the UNFPA should have a role in addressing such issues? If internationally funded organisations are charged with addressing these issues, I have no difficulty with them dealing with these "sensitive questions of contraception and abortion", as Senator Mullen called them.