Advocacy

Family Planning Australia advocates for the reproductive and sexual health and rights of everybody in every family, and supports people in our community who are marginalised and vulnerable.

We advocate for reproductive and sexual health rights at state, national, and international levels by working with the NSW and Australian Government, foreign governments, UN agencies, local and international non-government organisations and partners.

We are particularly focused on advocating for and improving reproductive and sexual health outcomes for people from culturally and linguistically diverse and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds, people with disability, and young people. (See Who we help)

Our advocacy work is strengthened through media appearances, social media, policy engagement and formal participation in government processes such as through written and oral submissions.

We also provide the Secretariat for the Australian Parliamentary Group on Population and Development (APGPD). Since 1995, the APGPD has worked across party lines to champion women's empowerment, break down gender discrimination, and advocate for universal reproductive and sexual health services and rights through Australia's foreign policy engagement.

We are committed to long term capacity building to address reproductive and sexual health need in the Pacific, and we advocate in a number of international forums for improved outcomes in the region.

The definition for sexual and reproductive health was agreed at the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994 and reiterated in subsequent international forums including the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995:

Good sexual and reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being in all matters relating to the reproductive system. It implies that people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life, the capability to reproduce, and the freedom to decide if, when, and how often to do so... To maintain one's sexual and reproductive health, people need access to accurate information and the safe, effective, affordable and acceptable contraception method of their choice. And when they decide to have children, women must have access to services that can help them have a fit pregnancy, safe delivery and healthy baby.
United Nations Population Fund