'Global gag rule' contributes to more unintended pregnancies.

• Tenlastelegging: Worldwide news

Ipas, an international organisation dedicated to ending the preventable deaths and disabilities caused by unsafe abortion, joined a coalition in September releasing Access Denied, a new study documenting the harmful effects of the US restrictions on funding for international family planning, widely known as the 'global gag rule'. The study examines the consequences of this policy, in Ethiopia, Kenya, Romania and Zambia. Project findings indicate that the Global Gag Rule has reduced access to vital family planning and related health services in each of the four countries studied.

'By denying women access to a full range of reproductive health services--including safe abortion in circumstances where it is legal--the policy only leads to more unwanted pregnancies, more unsafe abortions, and tragically, preventable deaths and injuries to the world's...