Melinda French Gates has launched a new $250 million initiative to improve women's health, making headlines worldwide. This significant move is part of her $1 billion commitment to promoting women's rights, highlighting the growing recognition that women's health issues are often overlooked and underfunded.
Through her organization, Pivotal Ventures, French Gates is introducing "Action for Women's Health," a fund designed to tackle the long-standing inequalities between men and women in health care.
According to Pivotal Ventures' website, women's health disparities not only affect their daily lives but can also hinder their futures. "Women's health has been underfunded, overlooked and misunderstood for far too long," the webpage states.
With this new fund, French Gates aims to spotlight organizations working tirelessly to address these challenges and provide them with the much-needed financial backing they deserve. "We need to do better," the site emphasizes, underscoring the urgency of the initiative.
French Gates' commitment to women's health isn't new, but recent developments in the U.S. seem to have added extra weight to her efforts. The Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs decision, which allowed states to set their abortion laws, has prompted her to turn her attention toward domestic reproductive rights.
In a May op-ed for The New York Times, French Gates expressed her concerns, writing that while her previous focus was on global contraceptive access, the post-Dobbs landscape made her feel compelled to act on reproductive rights closer to home. She pointed out that a lack of funding has kept organizations defending women's rights on the defensive while opposition forces have played offense. "I want to help level the playing field," she stated firmly.
This sentiment was echoed in a recent interview with Bloomberg, where French Gates spoke candidly about the ongoing effects of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. This historic 1973 ruling guaranteed abortion rights nationwide. "We're seeing the devastating impacts," she said.
She went further to say that she hopes the U.S. - or any country for that matter - never rolls back any law related to women's health again.
Adding to the political dimension of her advocacy, French Gates reiterated her endorsement of Kamala Harris for president in an interview with CBS News earlier this year. French Gates emphasized that Harris, who has been vocal about defending women's reproductive rights, contrasts starkly with other candidates.
"When you think about who understands the U.S. right now - who understands women's needs right now - there are stark contrasts," she told Bloomberg. Her words carry weight as one of the world's most influential philanthropists.
French Gates has spent decades shaping global philanthropic efforts, particularly through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which she cofounded with her ex-husband. After stepping down from the foundation in June following their divorce, she received $12.5 billion as part of their settlement.