It’s no accident that I waited to have my first child until I’d finished graduate school, devoted a decade to my career, and decided with Bill that we were ready to be parents. Nor is it an accident that my three kids were born almost exactly three years apart. My family, my career, and my life as I know it are all a direct result of contraceptives. Despite my personal experience with family planning, I still never imagined that I would one day speak out publicly about the issue of contraceptive access. For most of my life, it wasn’t even on my radar. But when I started spending time in the world’s poorest places, everything changed. What began as informal conversations with women I met overseas became the cornerstone of my agenda at our foundation. More than that, it became my life’s work.

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