Greens Senator Kerry Nettle today called on the government to lift the ban that means that Australian aid money can not be spent on organisations that provide information about abortion.
This call comes in light of a report today "The State of the World's Girls" by aid organisation Plan International which shows how restricted women's access to services in developing countries already is resulting in high levels of morbity.
The current AusAID Family Planning Guidelines ban Australian aid money funding any organisation that provides advice to women about abortion.
"If the Australian government wants to improve the health of women around the world they need to ensure that our aid money can provide women with the full range of reproductive health services," said Senator Nettle.
"Australia's aid money should be helping to improve women's health rather than making it worse by further limiting the access that women in the developing world have to health services.
"Between 13 and 25 per cent of maternal deaths globally are caused by unsafe abortions.
"The Lancet recently published an article which labelled the problem of unsafe abortion as a 'preventable pandemic' which kills an estimated 63,000 women and girls every year.
"Our aid priorities should be determined by what is best for lifting women and developing countries out of poverty instead of deals left over from the Harradine era.
"Australia and America are the only two countries that ban aid money being used to provide information about abortion.
"The government funds services that ensure that Australian women can get information about the safety of abortion. Yet the government does not support women overseas having access to such information.
