Access to contraception a human right, would cut health costs, UN says

OTTAWA – Advocates say Canada needs to do more to make family planning tools, resources and services more widely available to people in the developing world.

A new United Nations report says access to contraception is a universal human right that could dramatically improve the lives of women and children in poor countries.

It is the first time the UN Population Fund’s annual report explicitly describes family planning as a human right.

Action Canada for Population and Development, an Ottawa-based advocacy group, says the federal government needs to do more to make contraception available to women in developing countries.

Executive director Sandeep Prasad says only a fraction of the $1.1-billion committed by the federal government in 2010 to improve child health in developing countries is earmarked for family planning.

The UN report effectively declares that legal, cultural and financial barriers to accessing contraception and other family planning measures are an infringement of women’s rights.

— With files from The Associated Press