Dana campaign 'putting women at risk'

The Family Planning Association has warned that a campaign being promoted by Dana Rosemary Scallon is putting the lives of women and children in developing countries at risk.

The Connacht/Ulster MEP is calling for the withdrawal of international funding for reproductive health programmes in developing countries.

Spokesperson for the IFPA, Catherine Heany, said her campaign must not succeed in Europe.

She said that a similar campaign had already succeeded in the United States and the effects were disastrous.

"America has withheld funding to the tune of $34m (€34.1m), and if that funding had been released it could have prevented about 5,000 maternal moralities, it could have prevented 77,000 infant and child deaths and also it would have prevented two million unwanted pregnancies."

International funding of this type is considered by experts to be essential to developing countries.

New research by the United Nations has found that improved family planning has directly improved the economies of many developing nations.