Gates Foundation plans $2.1b for contraceptives, ‘gender equality’

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 3, 2021 / 17:01 pm (CNA).

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will begin a push for increased access to contraceptives over the next five years as part of their new $2.1 billion venture toward furthering “gender equality”.

“We know that when women control their bodies and their futures, they unlock a cycle of empowerment that reverberates for generations to come,” Melinda Gates wrote in a post on the foundation’s website.

Over the next five years the foundation will be spending an average of about $420 million a year. The funding also aims to promote “women’s economic empowerment, strengthen women and girls’ health and family planning, and support women’s leadership.”

“We are also reaffirming our 20-year commitment to family planning by supporting our partners to develop new and improved contraceptive technologies and meet the needs of women and girls for high-quality care,” Gates wrote.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Gates Foundation is aiming to help women to gain more paid work opportunities, make contraceptives more available, and improve financial services and child care access.

The foundation is aiming to “elevate women” into leadership positions through “family planning services,” according to the WSJ. The WSJ reported the foundation spent $296 million on family-planning initiatives in 2018.

Gates pledged $1 billion in 2019 to “gender equality.”

Together with her husband, Gates formed the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the largest philanthropic foundations in the world. Since its 1997 formation, the organization has a history of advocating for and donating money for abortion and contraceptives.