Family planning encompasses the services, policies, information, attitudes, practices, and commodities, including contraceptives, that give women, men, couples, and adolescents the ability to avoid unintended pregnancy and choose whether and/or when to have a child. In this commentary, we outline family planning’s links to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and highlight the transformational benefits that voluntary family planning brings to women, families, communities, and countries. The authors present family planning as a cross-sectoral intervention that can hasten progress across the 5 SDG themes of People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnership . In particular, the authors stress family planning’s:
- Link to human rights, gender equality, and empowerment;
- Impact on maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health;
- Role in shaping economic development and environmental and political futures; and
- Accelerating progress in these areas is critical for SDG achievement.
