Women’s health is being neglected worldwide as ‘pregnancy care deserts’ become more common, millions of abortions are denied and maternal mortality rates rise, Melinda French Gates warns as she launches a $250 million fund to improve the physical and mental health of women worldwide .
Despite advances in medicine, women experience ‘unacceptable’ inequalities in all aspects of their health, live longer in poor health and continue to face barriers to accessing basic care. Women in rich and poor countries are affected, with more than 700 dying every day during childbirth, French Gates said.
Women have also suffered the global consequences of the abortion ban passed in the US after the overturning of Roe v Wade in 2022. French Gates told the Guardian that the US elections next month would be crucial. “There is so much at stake for women and families,” she added.
Today, she will launch Pivotal Action for Women’s Health through her organization, providing a total of $250 million in new grants to groups around the world working to improve women’s health.
“To fully exercise power over their lives, women must be mentally and physically healthy. And yet women’s health is neglected everywhere,” said French Gates. “More than 1 billion women and girls suffer from malnutrition. Reproductive health care is denied in the US and other countries. And worldwide, a woman dies during childbirth every two minutes.”
She added: “This is unacceptable, but there is reason for hope. Organizations around the world are taking innovative approaches to tackle these challenges, and this open call is about giving them the tools they need to scale and reach as many people as possible.”
French Gates invites groups focused on women’s health – regardless of geography, perspective or size – to apply for up to $5 million each. The initiative comes less than five months after she left the foundation she and her former husband, Bill Gates, founded more than two decades ago.
French Gates said the $250 million she pledged to advance women’s health represented a quarter of a $1 billion donation over the next two years to individuals and organizations working on behalf of women and families worldwide.
It is the second billion-dollar commitment that French Gates has personally made in the past five years. In 2019, she pledged to expand women’s power and influence over the next decade.
While the erosion of women’s health and reproductive rights is a global concern, next month’s US elections are likely to have particularly serious consequences, French Gates said.
“There is so much at stake for women and families in these elections, and we need a leader who will fight for women’s rights, especially their access to reproductive care,” she added. She supports US Vice President Kamala Harris and highlights the need to protect reproductive rights.
“As Roe has been overturned, women have been denied emergency care, maternal mortality rates have continued to rise, and absenteeism from maternity care has become increasingly common,” she said. “These challenges are of course not limited to the US – women in low- and middle-income countries have long struggled to access quality care.”
She added: “Wherever you are in the world, women’s health is fundamental to the health of wider society. There are so many amazing organizations working to improve women’s health, and this call is about giving them the funding they need and ensuring women everywhere can access the care they deserve.”
The $250 million initiative aims to open up access to funding streams for organizations that have historically been left out, French Gates said. Eligible projects must have a track record of improving women’s mental or physical health and be ready to scale their work to strengthen the health of more women.
Action for women’s health will be administered by Lever for Change, a nonprofit of the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation.
“With this new open call, we hope to reach even more outstanding organizations in communities that have not had access to this type of funding,” said Cecilia Conrad, CEO of Lever for Change. “Action for Women’s Health will elevate community-informed groups around the world with deep experiences on the issues they work on.”