Melinda Gates Plans to Help 120 Million More Women Access Contraceptives by 2020

In an exclusive interview with Newsweek, Melinda Gates explained that she has decided to make family planning her signature issue and primary public health priority. Written by Michelle Goldberg, the Newsweek piece describes Gates’ passion for increasing access to contraception, her commitment to building consensus (and breaking down the controversy) around family planning, and her plans to start raising $4 billion to dramatically increase global access to contraceptives.

Now the foundation, which is worth almost $34 billion, is putting her agenda into practice. In July it’s teaming up with the British government to cosponsor a summit of world leaders in London, to start raising the $4 billion the foundation says it will cost to get 120 million more women access to contraceptives by 2020. And in a move that could be hugely significant for American women, it is pouring money into the long-neglected field of contraceptive research, seeking entirely new methods of birth control. Ultimately Gates hopes to galvanize a global movement. “When I started to realize that that needed to get done in family planning, I finally said, OK, I’m the person that’s going to do that,” she says.

Read the full story here.

Learn more about the Gates Foundation’s No Controversy campaign here.

Join the conversation on Twitter at hashtag #nocontroversy.

Follow Melinda Gates on Twitter: @melindagates.