Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark decided to launch a special international conference to show that women and girls in the developing world are not being forsaken.

Dutch international development minister Liliane Ploumen started ‘She Decides’ as a crowd-funding initiative to fund family planning projects. She fears that President Trump’s decision means that many women and girls will be denied maternity care, contraception, sex education and access to abortion.

At the conference women spoke about deaths during child birth in Pakistan, ignorance in Mali and teenage pregnancies in Colombia.

Belgian international development minister De Croo said the conference defended women’s rights to equal treatment, access to family planning, AIDS prevention and medication: “Every abortion is one too many, but when it’s necessary it should happen in safe conditions.”

So far Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark have pledged 10 million euros, Sweden 21 million, Canada and Bill and Melinda Gates’s foundation 20 million.

Flandersnews.be / Expatica