Ahead of the London Family Planning Summit taking place this
week, leading medical journal The Lancet has published a Family
Planning Series reviewing the evidence for the effects of
population and family planning on people’s well-being and the
environment. © Natalie Bailey/IRIN The series underlines the
crucial importance of family planning to the health of women and
children and charts a path towards the goal of universal
coverage. Opening with an editorial entitled The rebirth of
family planning, the series papers examine global population
trends and policy options, contraception and health, the
connection between demographic change and climate change, the
economic dividends of family planning, and how human rights can
be deployed to satisfy unmet needs for family planning.
Alongside the papers, research is published reporting the
effects of contraceptive use on maternal mortality, a viewpoint
investigating the politics of family planning, and comments from
country and global leaders. Writing in a commenta