Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether his Department has allocated funding to Marie Stopes International for advocacy on laws on abortion in (a) Malawi, (b) South Sudan and (c) other countries in the last ten years.

My Department has provided funding to Marie Stopes International through central and bilateral programming in support of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health. This includes a wide range of activities such as health service delivery, outreach, contraceptive supply, policy support and advocacy.

As part of this support, the Department allocated funding to Marie Stopes International and its partners through the Preventing Maternal Deaths from Unwanted Pregnancy Programme, from 2011 to 2018 across 20 countries, including South Sudan (until 2015) and Malawi. Our programmes take an integrated approach and the budget does not include figures specifically for advocacy on laws on abortion.