The Population Institute’s “Million for a Billion” petition campaign is now underway. Please see www.millionforabillion.com .  U.S. citizens are urged to sign a petition asking our Congress to increase its appropriation for family planning/reproductive health to $1 billion.

Why $1 billion? Providing modern methods of contraception to 215 million women will cost $3.6 billion (US$). If the 2015 target of universal access to family planning/reproductive health is to be met, the U.S and other donors must increase their support. In fiscal year 2010, the United States appropriated $648 million, $352 million less than the $1 billion requested by the International Family Planning Coalition and other U.S advocates.

Citizens of other countries are being asked to sign the petition asking world leaders to boost the current level of international support for family planning by $1 billion.

Here is an impressive list of organizations endorsing Million for a Billion.

• 34 Million Friends of UNFPA
• Americans for Informed Democracy
• Americans for UNFPA
• CHANGE: Center for Health and Gender Equity
• EngenderHealth
• Family Care International
• International Women’s Health Coalition
• Ipas
• Management Sciences for Health
• National Council of Jewish Women
• Pathfinder International
• Population Action International
• Population Institute
• Population Justice Project
• Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
• Sierra Club Global Population and Environment Program
• Union for Reform Judaism
• Women Deliver

All of these organizations have individual women’s access to reproductive health as a top priority and endorse the ICPD’s Progam of Action which “recognizes the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing, and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health.”

That says it all. If universal access to reproductive health were achieved, the world would be a better place. Women and families would thrive. Nations would thrive. The ills of poverty would be mitigated. The earth would have an easier time sustaining us and all living things.  I urge readers of this article to sign the petition at www.millionforabillion.com and to become acquainted with the constructive advocacy of the Population Institute: www.PopulationInstitute.org.