Amount pledged by Melinda Gates to increase access to contraception for women in some of the poorest countries in the world. The campaign, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation along with the British government and African leaders, whose pledges total $4.3 billion, aims to make family planning services available by 2020 to 120 million out of an estimated 220 million women around the globe who want contraception but can’t get it. Every year, contraceptive use prevents an estimated 272,000 maternal deaths. “When I travel and talk to women around the world they tell me that access to contraceptives can often be the difference between life and death,” said Gates in announcing the campaign on Wednesday at the London Summit on Family Planning. [via Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation]
