Britain steps up contraceptive drive

The government in the UK has stepped up the drive for contraceptives and safe abortions to be made readily available to people living in developing countries. The move is one at the heart of the government’s push to achieve better healthcare for women in these nations. The initiatives aim to reduce the amount of deaths from childbirth and sexual related issues.

Experts have suggested that there are around 75 million unplanned pregnancies every year in the world. It is also widely believed that there are around 70,000 deaths per year that are a direct result of unsuccessful 'botched' abortion operations. Around 3 million women in developing countries die every year from childbirth related deaths.

The Department for International Development (DfID) secretary Andrew Mitchell has backed a consultation concerning the issue. Mr Mitchell believes that the department needs to demonstrate a “double duty” in the way that they handle their budget, which has been affected by cuts. Mr Mitchell revealed that the "DfID is still facing a cut of a third in its administrative budget. So I'm letting out two floors of the department.”

Mr Mitchell revealed that he had studied the department’s spending and found that there was “£178m of spending which wasn’t performing properly”. An example of this spending was revealed to be a large amount of money “being spent on a Brazilian dance group, specialising in percussion, which was based in north London”.

The shadow minister for International Development, Gareth Thomas said that Mr Mitchell needs to “explain how this fits within the wider agenda on child health - especially given that the majority of child deaths under the age of five tragically occur after the first month of life, a period which does not appear to be addressed by this consultation.”