It was first formed in 1952 in Bombay (present-day Mumbai), India, by Margaret Sanger and Lady Rama Rau at the Third International Conference on Planned Parenthood with support of an expanding population with limited resources.

Member Associations provide non-profit family planning services, sexual health and abuse prevention training and education.

Over 40% of the organisation's resources are aimed at serving the needs of young people; as the IPPF explains, individuals under 25 (and especially females) are at a much higher risk of getting infected with HIV.

[2] The IPPF is financially supported by governments, trusts, and foundations including the European Commission and the United Nations Population Fund for special projects.

[citation needed] In April 2011, it was revealed that IPPF, which had applied for an $18 million grant more than a year previously, had been denied funding by a Conservative Party government due to lobbying efforts by anti-abortion groups.

[4] Many anti-abortion activists have been critical of the spending including conservative MP Brad Trost who criticised his own party for supporting the "pro-choice" group.

[11] Two years later another meeting was held, the International Congress on Population and World Resources in Relation to the Family, in Cheltenham, England in August 1948,[12] predated the establishment of the IPPF.