Ottawa, Canada (BBN) - Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has pledged $650 million towards sex education and reproductive health initiatives around the world.
According to Vice, some of the money is earmarked to fill the funding gap for abortion-related services left by cuts made by President Donald Trump, reports BBC.
The fund will also focus specifically on tackling "sexual and gender-based violence, including child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation and cutting".
It will "support the right to choose safe and legal abortion, as well as access to post-abortion care".
Trudeau made the announcement on Wednesday to mark International Women’s Day.
"Like men, women should be able to choose when they want to start a family, how big their family should be, and who they want to start that family with," Trudeau said.
"When women have equal power and equal weight and equal leadership influence, the kinds of decisions are better."
One of the first things President Trump did when he got into office was to sign an executive order - called the Mexico City Policy - banning money going to international groups that perform or provide information on abortions.
The policy is also known as the Global Gag Rule and was introduced by President Ronald Reagan in 1984.
It was scrapped by Clinton, reintroduced by Bush, then overturned by Obama in 2009.
The reintroduction of it by Trump was criticised by pro-choice groups across America - and Harry Potter author JK Rowling...
In January, the Netherlands started a fund to help women around the world to access abortion services.
The country pledged $10 million towards the four-year, $600-million funding gap it claimed Trump had created by reinstating the Global Gag Rule.
Since then, countries including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland, Canada and Cape Verde have all donated money towards the fund.
BBN/MS/SK