Getachew Bekele is looking for condoms, three million of them.

He also needs more than five million shots of the injectable contraceptive Depo Provera, 22,000 IUDs and almost seven million packages of birth control pills.

That would be enough to solve the family planning needs for his country, Ethiopia, for one year. Ethiopia and other developing countries are gripped by an overwhelming shortage of birth control supplies. Men can't find condoms, which leads not only to unwanted pregnancy but HIV transmission. Women are ending up pregnant because they've run out of birth control. It's estimated that 36 per cent of married women can't get contraceptives. Some are turning to back-alley abortions, with fatal consequences.

Mr. Bekele, the Ethiopian director for the London-based family planning organization Marie Stopes International, was in Ottawa last week looking for support for his drought-stricken country, where the life expectancy is only 45.5 years and population growth is out of control...

Canada has traditionally provided strong financial support for family planning in the developing world, so Ottawa was a logical stop on his world tour of potential donor nations. But Canada has a new prime minister, and no one knows yet if it will continue to help developing countries with family planning, or if it will follow the lead of U.S. President George Bush, who has abandoned support of organizations that don't hold his views.

Ethiopia and dozens of other developing countries still face massive contraception shortages as a result of Bush's 2001 policy -- dubbed the "global gag rule" by activists -- that denied U.S. aid to international family-planning programs that counselled abortion or advocated for changes in abortion laws.

Many international family-planning organizations -- such as Marie Stopes International -- refused to sign the conditions of the 2001 policy and ended up forfeiting millions in family-planning funding and had to close health clinics throughout the developing world.

Most of the organizations did not provide abortions, although many have used their own funds to lobby for liberalized abortion laws in the developing world, counselled women on how to obtain abortion services, or provided post-abortion care.

International Planned Parenthood Federation -- the world's largest voluntary organization working in sexual and reproductive health care -- lost $12 million because of its refusal to agree to the gag rule. In Ethiopia, it lost 35 per cent of its budget.

In Ethiopia, Mr. Bekele saw four community health clinics shuttered -- three of them based in the poorest parts of Addis Ababa, and one in the countryside. These clinics did not provide abortion services -- abortion is illegal in Ethiopia -- but were one-room buildings operated by a nurse, who offered vaccines to children, Depo Provera injections and other birth control to women, vitamin A supplements, malaria treatment and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS.

The U.S., which is pushing a pro-abstinence agenda called ABC (abstinence, be faithful, and lastly, condom use), also stopped sending condoms to organizations that didn't comply with the gag policy.

So a policy that was intended to decrease abortions has instead resulted in a dearth of family planning counselling, contraception, and, according to Mr. Bekele, an increase in illegal abortions, many of them deadly.

He told the story of Esther, who was married at 16 and by age 21 already had three children. Her farmer husband wanted to have more -- more children, more farm hands -- but Esther was exhausted and resisted. She heard that it was possible to stop having children by taking pills. She secured a supply from a Marie Stopes worker and started taking them. But four months later, her husband found the pills and forced her to stop taking them. He wanted more children.

Esther, feeling trapped, complained to the Marie Stopes worker, who told her that there was an injectable form of birth control, Depo Provera, which only had to be taken every three months. Esther happily agreed. For three years, she didn't get pregnant.

But last year she went to get her shot and there was none to be had. She returned three times, and each time she was told there were no supplies. She was panicking. She feared another pregnancy, but couldn't say no to her husband.

The next time the worker saw Esther, she was pregnant.

In Amharic, the language of Ethiopia, she told the worker, "This is your child. I didn't want this child and you forced me to have it because you promised me I could stop pregnancy, then you let me down."

It was impossible to explain the complex world of international development, the global gag law, and commodities shortages.

While you and I might think that her husband is to blame for the unwanted pregnancy, in her world she is powerless to refuse his sexual advances, so her only salvation was birth control supplied by a foreign country.

The Marie Stopes worker never saw Esther again. She sought an abortion from an illegal clinic -- nothing more than a back alley shack -- and she died from complications. This is not uncommon in Ethiopia, where it's estimated that 50 per cent of mothers' deaths are from botched abortions (the rest are from complications of pregnancy and birth).

The worker resigned his post because he did feel Esther's pregnancy -- and her death -- was his fault.

Mr. Bekele is struggling to find help, both from his own government and other potential donors. In Ottawa he met with officials from Action Canada for Population and Development (ACPD), a non-profit organization that lobbies for reproductive rights for women in Canada and overseas. So far, ACPD is hopeful the new Harper government will continue to support family-planning initiatives in the developing world.

Mr. Bekele also met with officials from the Canadian International Development Agency. He hopes to find a sympathetic audience from Canadians, who two years ago stepped up to fill the funding void left by the American government. The United Nations Population Fund, as well as several European countries, have also provided extra money. But Ethiopia is seeking a long-term commitment for assistance.

There is a lot of talk about reaching the Millennium Development Goals to eradicate poverty by 2015, but Mr. Bekele feels strongly that without access to birth control, all else is impossible.

Ethiopia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, at 1,800 deaths per 100,000 deliveries (Canada's is six deaths per 100,000 deliveries). Only six per cent of births are attended by trained people, and 42 per cent of pregnant women have anemia.

Its population, now at 77.4 million, is growing by 2.7 per cent every year.

In Ethiopia, 44 per cent of the population is under 15. In Canada, 18 per cent is under 15. Mr. Bekele says with that many young people posed to reach reproductive age, the population could explode even more.

What will we do without family planning supplies, he wonders.

He says that governments -- his own and wealthy foreign ones -- can help the women of his country.

The path taken by his own daughter is an example of what is possible for Ethiopian women if they are freed from the shackles of unwanted pregnancy. At 28, she is unmarried and pursuing her Masters in Economics. "She is the future of Ethiopia," he said, beaming.

This is the final installment of Shelley Page's Second Opinion column. She will continue to write on health topics frequently for the Sunday Citizen.