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 Anthony Davis, Amanda Ludwick, Maria Morgan, Amber Rousseau, Jaz͛min Sylvester
ï  
ð ½omen͛s Family Planning and Reproductive Rights are Human Rights
protected by International Law.

ð The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed on December

10th, 1948.

ð The United States provides family planning services to all women

through publicly funded programs.

ð Ireland͛s anti-abortion policies are considered to be out-dated and do

not recognize women͛s right to family planning.

ð Policy in America and Ireland significantly impact the citizens͛ daily

lives.
 
    
ð Population overgrowth became an American concern in the early
1950͛s.

ð Low-income women were bearing more children then desired, making

it difficult to finish an education or receive training skills. Consequently,
this caused mothers to rely on public assistance.

ð Title X made family planning services affordable and available to

everyone.

ð Title X expanded voluntary family planning services and was effective

at reducing rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion.

ð Title X imposes family planning as an unalienable human right.

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ð Margaret Sanger, a public health nurse, opened the first birth control clinic
in New York City in 1916.

ð President John F. Kennedy endorsed research of birth control and used

contraceptives as a way to combat population growth.

ð Federal funds were made available in 1965 to support family planning

services for low-income women as a way to alleviate poverty, expanding
economic dependence and decreasing dependency on welfare.

ð Supreme Court struck down a law in 1965 prohibiting the use of

contraceptives by married couples in Griswold v. Connecticut.

ð Roe v. ½ade legalized abortion in 1970.

ð President Richard Nixon believed that funding family services would help
remedy the population burst.
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ð Title X is a federal grant program administered by the Office of Family Planning within
the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

ð Title X of the Public Health Service Act of 1970 provided the majority of public
funding for family planning services until 1985.

ð Title X guarantees the provision of family planning services to approximately five

million women and men through a network of more than 4,500 community-based
clinics; including state and local health departments, tribal organizations, hospitals,
university health centers, independent clinics, community health centers, faith-based
organizations, and other public and private nonprofit agencies.

ð ½orld Health Organization has four program goals: healthy sexual development and
maturation, increase the number of healthy births, avoid illness, disease, and
disability related to sexual reproduction, and freedom from violence and other
harmful practices related to sexuality and reproduction.

ð ½omen who use family planning are more likely to use services like prenatal care,
which decreases health problems for the mother and child.

ð Effective family planning policies currently prevent 1.2 million pregnancies in the
United States each year.

    ï  
ð The most notorious policy impacting women͛s family planning and reproductive rights in Ireland is the
Offences against the Person Act of 1861, which outlawed abortion in the Republic of Ireland.

ð Although Ireland shares government with the United Kingdom, its failure to adopt pro-choice policies
resulted in the defeat of the 1967 Abortion Act; which is currently enacted in most parts of ½estern
Europe and utilizes legislation to protect women͛s family planning and reproductive rights.

ð Ireland relies on the Offences against the Person Act of 1861 to create policies and legislation to
criminalize abortion in the Republic of Ireland. These restrictive policies and legislation limit Irish
women͛s rights to seek an abortion, negatively impacts the financial well-being of the mother and
family, and imparts a stigma upon the abortion medical procedure - making pre-natal care to high-risk
pregnancies difficult to obtain.

ð Abortions are legally restricted in almost all circumstances. Service providers and patients may receive
penal servitude for life because of the abortion.

ð Irish government uses injunctions to keep Irish citizens from travelling abroad. It is estimated that
thousands of Irish women and girls travel abroad to seek abortion services in other European countries.

ð ½omen are denied abortion under all circumstances including rape, incest, and medical urgency.

ð Northern Ireland has been accused of sabotaging women͛s human rights including health, information,
privacy, freedom from cruel and inhumane and degrading treatment, life and equal protection under the
law, and non-discrimination.
º
ð National policies regarding women͛s family planning and reproductive
rights are formulated using international treaties that promote and
ensure human rights.

ð American family planning policies and programs have provided services

to millions of American women each year.

ð The implementation of these policies have been successful at relieving

population growth, promoting women͛s right to choice, and improved
mother and child health.

ð Strict and vague policies in Ireland are considered to be outdated and

in violation of basic human rights.