Robert Walker, executive vice president of the Population Institute, writes in this Huffington Post opinion piece that despite an increase in government and NGO support for maternal and child health programs, including family planning services, announced last week by the U.N. as part of its Every Woman, Every Child campaign, “the world’s largest donor nation, the United States, is retreating on its commitments to international family planning, and other donor nations may follow suit.” 

“The hope is, in the upcoming budget negotiations, that the Senate will successfully oppose any steep cuts in international family planning for 2012, but even if the Senate holds the line this year, family planning could easily fall victim to the budgetary axe in future years,” he writes, concluding, “With world population poised to cross the seven billion mark in less than two months, and projected to reach nine billion by 2042, this is no time to be denying women access to contraceptive services” (9/22).