The evidence is clear. Investments in reproductive health pay enormous dividends for economic development, improve family and child health, protect the environment, increase security and advance women's rights:

• When women and men have access to voluntary family planning, poverty rates go down, education rates go up and greater prosperity for families and their communities follow.
• When the more than 200 million women who want access to modern contraception have it, there are fewer unintended pregnancies, and maternal and infant deaths decrease.
• In the end, a nation's health - its families, its communities and its economy - is directly linked to the health and status of its women. And, it is one of the best ways to protect women's rights.

As discussed in this Global Leaders Council policy brief, reproductive health - and specifically family planning - is a cost-effective investment that furthers a broad array of development goals. Despite these facts, the debate around reproductive health has been marginalized, resulting in flawed reproductive health policies and lack of funding for global reproductive health. It is time to reclaim the debate.

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