President and CEO of IntraHealth International, Pape Gaye, and Roy Jacobstein, senior medical advisor at IntraHealth International, discuss 5 big questions surrounding the future of family planning and global health.

Excerpt: 

After the smallpox vaccine and the green revolution, modern contraceptives are one of global development’s biggest game-changers.

It’s no coincidence that as global use of modern contraceptives rose from 55% in 1990 to 63% in 2010, global maternal mortality fell by a staggering 45%. In 2013 alone, contraceptives prevented 77 million unintended pregnancies, 24 million unsafe abortions and the deaths of 125,000 women.

Countries are catching on to the demographic dividends that come with robust family planning programs, which can help turn a low-income country into a middle-income country. (Just look at Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.)

Read Five Big Questions for the Future of Global Family Planning on The Huffington Post here.