Just $8.39 per person could give women control over their fertility

Jul 11, 2017

Surrogate mothers (L-R) Daksha, 37, Renuka, 23, and Rajia, 39, pose for a photograph inside a temporary home for surrogates provided by Akanksha IVF centre in Anand town, about 70 km (44 miles) south of the western Indian city of Ahmedabad August 27, 2013. India is a leading centre for surrogate motherhood, partly due to Hinduism's acceptance of the concept. The world's second test tube baby was born in Kolkata only two months after Louise Brown in 1978. Rising demand from abroad for Indian surrogate mothers has turned "surrogacy tourism" there into a billion dollar industry, according to a report by the Law Commission of India. Picture taken August 27, 2013. REUTERS/Mansi Thapliyal (INDIA - Tags: HEALTH SOCIETY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) ATTENTION EDITORS: PICTURE 18 33 FOR PACKAGE 'SURROGACY IN INDIA'TO FIND ALL SEARCH 'SURROGACY ANAND' - RTR3FFER

'By allowing women to choose whether and how many children to have, family planning gives them power' Image: REUTERS/Mansi Thapliyal

Yoriko Yasukawa

Senior Adviser to the Rector, University for Peace

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An Akha hills tribe girl carries her sibling in the Phongsali province of Laos February 15, 2006. [Laos, the world's third largest heroin producer only ten years ago, declared itself free of opium poppies on Tuesday, after a six year campaign against the raw material use to make the narcotic.] - RTXO985

Family planning is central to Laos' future prosperity and its work to improve maternal health is being replicated elsewhere in the region Image: REUTERS

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