The Center for Reproductive Rights released a new report, "Forsaken Lives: The Harmful Impact of the Philippine Criminal Abortion Ban," which illustrates the harmful consequences of the Philippine ban on abortion from a human rights perspective. By criminalizing abortion, the report states, the government has severely curtailed the reproductive rights of Filipino women and forces them to resort to dangerous alternatives. Despite the ban, each year, an estimated 560,000 clandestine abortions occur in the Philippines, 90,000 women suffered complications requiring hospitalization, and 1,000 women died.
Updates
US Senate Committee Moves to Repeal Global Gag Rule
August 2nd, 2010
Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved an amendment to permanently repeal the Global Gag Rule, which prohibited organizations who performed or promoted abortion from receiving US funding. Though President Obama signed an executive order upon taking office in January 2009 that officially rescinded the Global Gag Rule, this amendment will prevent future administrations from reinstating it. The amendment was sponsored by Sen. Lautenberg and co-sponsored by Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), and was passed with a vote of 17–11.
Tragedy in Uganda and a Rare Opportunity to Deliver for Africa’s Women
July 22nd, 2010
By: Jill Sheffield, President of Women Deliver, originally posted at The Huffington Post
These past few weeks especially, Kampala has been on my mind. Not least because of the senseless attacks that took place there last week. The injustice of terrorism is confounding, and it is a tragedy that innocent people pay the price. But Kampala is on my mind also because, amidst the grief over recent events there is an amazing opportunity. The city is host to the 15th African Union Summit.
The theme of this year's Summit, building on the momentum of Women Deliver and the G8 Summit in the past months, is "maternal, infant, and child health and development in Africa." I cannot imagine a more important theme for a meeting in Africa, taking place at a more momentous time. Millions of women across Africa still struggle to realize their rights and live healthy, fulfilled lives beneath the burdens of poverty, sexual violence and unplanned pregnancies. [Read more...]
Youth Action: Delivering A Better Future For Women And Girls
July 20th, 2010
By: Ernestine B. Greaves, one of the Women Deliver 100 Young Leaders
Globally, we now have the largest generation of youth in history: more than 1.2 billion young people are between 10 and 19 years old. We are the future. Yet our future is uncertain if our health systems and health services continue to fail this generation, and the next.
It’s an unfortunate truth that one woman, every minute, dies from complications due to pregnancy and childbirth around the world. This is also the leading cause of death for girls aged 15-19 in developing countries. Unplanned pregnancy rates continue to be high across the world, and of the 13% of maternal deaths worldwide due to unsafe abortions, almost half of those are aged under 19. The challenges of pregnancy and childbirth threaten young women’s lives every single day.
Now is the time to deliver for these women. As her Excellency President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf attends the Summit of the African Union, she must take action on maternal health and protect and promote the sexual and reproductive health and rights of young people.
Letter to the African Heads of State (Sign Your Name!)
July 15th, 2010
It is a simple truth: The Millennium Development Goals will not be achieved in Africa without addressing sexual and reproductive health. In 2006, recognizing that women and girls deliver enormous social and economic benefits to their families, communities, and nations, the African Union boldly adopted a short-term plan to achieve the MDGs and save women’s lives in their continent: The Maputo Plan of Action. You understood the needs and realities of your countries, you came together, and you adopted a plan that moved sexual and reproductive health higher on Africa’s political agenda. We commend you for taking the lead in addressing sexual and reproductive health, including maternal health and family planning.
Now, the Maputo Plan of Action is about to expire, and we’re calling on you to reenergize your efforts to achieve the goals that you set in 2006. It’s time to build on the legacy of the Maputo Plan, and to move forward with renewed determination to save the lives of millions of women and girls. [Read more...]
Guttmacher Institute Releases Two New Reports from African Region
July 15th, 2010
This past week the New York-based Guttmacher Institute has released two new reports - one documenting the benefits of increased investment in family planning in Ethiopia and another on how lack of awareness of abortion law is a barrier to better health in Ghana.
For more information on either report, please click through to keep reading or visit guttmacher.org.
Young Advocates: 10 Ways to Get Involved and Take Action
July 15th, 2010
Looking for an opportunity to become more involved in women's health? Keep reading to find out 10 ways you can make a difference this summer.
G20 Leaders Agree to Discuss International Development Issues
June 29th, 2010
By: Janna Oberdorf, Communications Manager for Women Deliver
On Sunday, the G20 Summit, a group of government leaders from 20 countries, followed up on the outcomes of the G8 meetings the day before that promised $7.3 billion to maternal and child health. The G20 usually focuses on matters pertaining to the international financial system, while the G8 talks about broader development issues like solving global poverty. For the first time ever, the G20 agreed to set up a working group on international development issues, giving itself a formalized a role in helping poor countries.
There were two key paragraphs that will affect the maternal and child health communities in the communiqué that was released by the G20...
Promising Steps Toward International Women’s Health
June 29th, 2010
By: Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, originally posted on The Huffington Post
While the World Cup has united people around TV sets across the world over the past weeks, another more radical act of global unity took place. This past weekend the world's leading governments came together and talked about women. For the first time the Group of 8's annual summit, which took place in Canada's tourist and wine region of Muskoka, Ontario, elevated the importance of women and girls on the world stage by making maternal and child health the flagship commitment of its development agenda. This new commitment to women and children rightly aims to broadly address these health needs, and includes family planning among the essential health interventions for women.
G8 Communiqué Commits to Maternal Health, Child Health, and Family Planning; Safe Abortion Absent
June 26th, 2010
By: Janna Oberdorf, Communications Manager for Women Deliver
The G8 leaders have released their communiqué, the consensus reached during the last two days of discussions. As we’ve blogged about over the past days, Canada placed maternal and child health at the forefront of the G8 discussion. As the communiqué states:
“Progress towards MDG 5, improving maternal health, has been unacceptably slow. Although recent data suggests maternal mortality has been declining, hundreds of thousands of women still lose their lives every year, or suffer injury, from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. Much of this could be prevented with better access to strengthened health systems, and sexual and reproductive health care and services, including voluntary family planning. Progress on MDG 4, reducing child mortality, is also too slow. Nearly 9 million children die each year before their fifth birthday. These deaths profoundly concern us and underscore the need for urgent collective action. We reaffirm our strong support to significantly reduce the number of maternal, newborn and under five child deaths as a matter of immediate humanitarian and development concern. Action is required on all factors that affect the health of women and children. This includes addressing gender inequality, ensuring women’s and children’s rights and improving education for women and girls."
The Numbers Game: The G8 Commits $5 Billion
June 26th, 2010
By: Janna Oberdorf, Communications Manager for Women Deliver
Following up on Canada’s pledge of $1.1 billion of new money over five years, the G8 countries pledge a total of $5 billion. Bolstered by another $2.3 billion from six non-G8 countries, the Gates Foundation, and the UN Foundation, that brings the total contributions to maternal and child health to $7.3 billion.
“Some countries pledged relatively more than others, at least relative to the size of their economies,” said Prime Minister Stephen Harper. “Obviously the differences in pledges have to do with differences in priorities, but also differences in financial situations.”
A Tragedy That Doesn’t Have to Happen
June 25th, 2010
By: Agnes Odhiambo, originally posted on The Huffington Post
Nairobi -- Nineteen-year-old Christine Nyaboke became pregnant in 2005. She was in labor for three days at home with a traditional birth attendant because her mother had no money to take her to hospital. She had a stillbirth, and later discovered that her body was painfully damaged. Nyaboke, not her real name, had a fistula, a severe childbirth injury that leaves its victims constantly leaking urine and feces. As a result, she was shunned and abused by former friends and others in her community. She could not leave home for social events, to look for work or even to go to church. She became depressed and contemplated suicide.
She was just one of the more than 50 women and girls I interviewed late last year who suffered obstetric fistula. Unless it is surgically repaired, it ruins their lives. With the G-8 planning to discuss maternal health at its summit meeting this week in Canada, I can't help but think of how these girls' and women's lives would not have been torn apart if they had access to appropriate health care, including family planning services, at the time of their pregnancy and childbirth.
On the Eve of the G8: Waiting for the Rubber to Hit the Road
June 23rd, 2010
By: Jill Sheffield, president of Women Deliver, originally posted at The Huffington Post
Prime Minister Stephen Harper couldn't make it to the Women Deliver conference earlier this month, where nearly 3,500 advocates and leaders from 146 countries gathered to support action on maternal health, but thankfully his Minister of International Cooperation, Bev Oda, could. She will surely carry back to Canada the message that rang out from the thousands of voices present: it's time to deliver for women. Invest in women, it pays.
On the eve of the G8 and G20 Summits, Harper should heed this message and consider carefully as he gets ready to unveil the Muskoka Iniative -- hopefully a plan with a bold vision and a significant funding scheme. After the tremendous momentum that has built around maternal health as a key development issue, the G8 Summit should not be a denouement but an important stepping stone on the way to achieving our goal. Read more...
Making the Final Push for Political Will
June 22nd, 2010
By: Kate Dilley, Administrative Coordinator at Management Sciences for Health, originally posted at haba na haba, hujaza kibaba
One of the most striking admissions I heard during the Women Deliver 2010 conference in Washington DC (June 7-9) was that the major challenge facing maternal health improvement is a lack of political will. Kathleen Sebelius, the US Secretary for Health and Human Services, suggested that the problem with improving maternal mortality lay not with the lack of knowledge or interventions, but the political will to put that knowledge to action, the will to make maternal mortality a priority of governments, the will to stand up and say that the lives of women matter, and we MUST do something about it. Read more...
Statement from the First Ladies of Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Zanzibar
June 22nd, 2010
Hello. We are the first ladies of Ghana, Sierra Leone and Zanzibar and are honored to stand before you today. We believe that the first human right is the right to safe and healthy lives. Maternal mortality denies women prematurely that right and the rate of maternal deaths speaks loudly about the health status of a country. The problems women share recognize no borders. Read more...
Winning Idea: Access to Contraception Begins with Questions on the Ground
June 10th, 2010
By: Mary Krane Derr, Writer, Poet, Multi-Issue Nonviolence Activist, originally posted on Conversations for a Better World
Recently, Conversations for a Better World launched a contest for good ideas. They asked, "How can we ensure that every woman who chooses can access the Pill or other contraceptive options?" Below is the winning idea.
Jen Roth and I recently co-founded All Our Lives, a multinational nonprofit group eager to resolve this urgent problem, among others that constrain women’s and children’s lives and well-being. We are pro every life, born and unborn, and pro women’s right to make their own nonviolent sexual and reproductive choices. Guaranteeing family planning access for all women on Earth who wish it will help prevent millions of unsought pregnancies and maternal and fetal injuries and deaths.
Rage for Justice Motivates Young People
June 9th, 2010
By Joanne Omang
WASHINGTON, June 9 – Cell phone networks, edu-tainment, basketball teams, at least one kidney and great helpings of courage in the face of threats and even murder are bringing young people to the cutting edge of political change for women worldwide, a Women Deliver 2010 panel discussion demonstrated today.
Sarah Nkhoma of Malawi told the 3,000 conference participants that organizing university students to speak realistically about HIV/AIDS risks and sexual behavior earned her an arrest and a severe beating that left her hospitalized. “People don’t want to deal with the fact that young people have sex,” she said. “They owe me a kidney.” more...
Let Women Deliver For Us All
June 9th, 2010
By: Karl Hofmann, CEO and President of PSI, originally posted on The Huffington Post
In April, the Lancet released some encouraging statistics on maternal health: maternal deaths dropped from about 526,000 in 1980 to around 340,000 maternal deaths worldwide in 2008. This is a decline worth celebrating, but not a reason to pull back; if anything, this study should drive us to do more: to advocate for necessary policy changes and to push for funding increases for maternal health. We know progress is possible.
More than 3,200 people - everyone from world leaders to midwives working in rural Africa - will convene in Washington, D.C., today to attend the Women Deliver Conference 2010. We are meeting to map out this progress. more...
Women and Family Planning Missing in Climate Change Talks
June 8th, 2010
By Joanne Omang
WASHINGTON, June 8 – Women as the chief food producers and gatherers of the developing world are being strongly affected by climate change, but they have very little input into discussions of ways to deal with it, Women Deliver 2010 participants learned today.
Panelists considering women, population and climate change at this three-day conference agreed that greater access to family planning can help communities cope with the local impacts of planetary climate change, but that this approach is rarely – if ever – considered in international negotiations on climate change. more...
Ali Larter Is Ready to be a Hero for Women and Girls
June 8th, 2010
By: Tamar Abrams, originally posted on The Huffington Post
Ali Larter, the luminous star of TV shows such as "Heroes" and films including "Legally Blonde" and "Obsessed." Is also a newly minted advocate for reproductive rights for women and girls. At the Women Deliver conference taking place in Washington DC this week, women in native African garb pass Parliamentarians and scientists, while First Ladies from Ghana and Zanzibar mingle with Arianna Huffington and UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon. And wandering among the thousands of delegates from over 140 countries is Ali Larter. If she weren't accompanied by a small retinue and the occasional camera, she would likely be overlooked. So why has the successful young actress with a lingering cold flown all the way to Washington for a policy-wonkish conference spanning three days? Because the United Nations Foundation asked.