Devex: London Family Planning Summit to raise at least $2.5B
“Ministers, donors, civil society groups, and private sector partners are set to pledge at least $2.5 billion in new funding to improve and expand the reach of reproductive health services to women and girls in developing countries at the Family Planning Summit being held in the United Kingdom’s capital today. Commitments are still coming in at the summit — taking place on World Population Day — with the total expected to exceed the $2.5 billion estimate by the end of the day…” (Edwards/Anders, 7/11).

The Guardian: Melinda Gates ‘deeply troubled’ by Donald Trump’s planned budget cuts
“…At the opening plenary of the global Family Planning Summit in London on Tuesday, Gates said: ‘This is a difficult political climate for family planning. I’m deeply troubled, as I’m sure you are, by the Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts. If empowering women is more than just rhetoric for the president, he will prove it by funding family planning’…” (Ford, 7/11).

The Independent: Melinda Gates attacks Donald Trump’s foreign aid policy on women’s rights to contraception
“…Ms. Gates said that contraception access was the ‘most effective anti-poverty tool we have’ and that 40 developing country governments are interested in the initiative if they can get funding. … ‘If you believe in women, you fund family planning and so I’m counting on Congress in the U.S. to hold up U.S. funding on family planning’…” (Revesz, 7/11).

Thomson Reuters Foundation: Contraceptives are “one of the greatest anti-poverty innovations”: Melinda Gates
“…The foundation will announce an additional $375 million for family planning over the next four years. The summit comes at a critical time, with U.S. President Donald Trump having said he will end funding to the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations agency which deals with family planning, sexual, and reproductive health. The Trump administration also reinstated a policy blocking U.S. funding to overseas groups that perform or provide information about abortion…” (Batha, 7/11).