Family Planning Fact Sheet

Family Planning Fact Sheet

Family Planning Saves Lives

Motherhood can be dangerous for women and children.

• Globally, every minute a woman dies from complications during pregnancy or childbirth. 
• Nearly all of the annual 536,000 maternal deaths worldwide occur in the developing world. 
• Annually 4 million infants die within a month of being born. When a mother dies, it dramatically increases the risk of death for her baby. 
• Women account for nearly half of all people living with HIV and are disproportionately affected by new infections. This could be reduced if women and men had access to contraception. 
• With Millennium Development Goal #5 to improve maternal health and to reduce maternal mortality by three quarters by 2015, there is still much work to be done in achieving this goal. Since 1990 maternal mortality has dropped by only 6%. Women and children are healthiest when pregnancies are planned. 
• When a woman delays pregnancy at least two years after the birth of her previous child, she is much more likely to have a healthy pregnancy and birth. 
• Healthy mothers have healthy babies. Spacing children lowers the risk of infant mortality.
  Unmet need for family planning affects many women and families.
•  Worldwide there are more than 200 million women who would like to avoid pregnancy but lack a family planning method. 
• As a result, there are 80 million unintended pregnancies each year. More than half result in abortion, many of them under illegal and unsafe conditions.
  Investing in family planning reduces unintended pregnancy and increases health for women and children. By empowering women and men to make healthy decisions about how to space their children and determine their family size, family planning helps create healthier lives for themselves and for their children.

The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a global Christian denomination with approximately 11 million members. Throughout its history, the UMC has been committed to the health of women and families and stands in strong support of family planning.

Resolution #25 on "Responsible Parenthood" states:

As developing technologies have moved conception and reproduction more and more out of the category of a chance happening and more closely to the realm of responsible choice, the decision whether or not to give birth to children must include acceptance of the responsibility to provide for their mental, physical, and spiritual growth, as well as consideration of the possible effect on quality of life for family and society.

To support the sacred dimensions of personhood, all possible efforts should be made by parents and the community to ensure that each child enters the world with a healthy body and is born into an environment conducive to the realization of his or her full potential.

Social Principle ¶ 162 K regarding population says:

People have the duty to consider the impact on the total world community of their decisions regarding childbearing and should have access to information and appropriate means to limit their fertility, including voluntary sterilization.