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 Though President Obama signed an executive order upon taking office in January 2009 that officially rescinded the Global Gag Rule, this amendment will prevent future administrations from reinstating it.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.
Updates
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.
Parliamentarians at Women Deliver 2010 Commit to Turning Dialogue Into Action
June 18th, 2010
“The biggest enemy of women’s health and rights is political indifference”, Jill Sheffield, President of Women Deliver remarked during the opening plenary session. The Parliamentarians’ Forum on “Delivering Solutions, Delivering Resources, Delivering Leadership: The Role of Parliamentarians in advancing Maternal Health” was dedicated to prevent just that and discussed the way forward to achieve MDG 5 in the remaining five years from a Parliamentarians’ angle.
The Parliamentarians’ Forum culminated in a Parliamentarians’ Statement. Amongst others, Parliamentarians called for additional US $12 billion a year to be invested in women and girls and to actively work towards the establishment of a global funding mechanism for family planning, mothers and children with other international donors. The statement urges Ministers to establish realistic and verifiable annual action plans for reaching individual MDG targets with a special emphasis on MDG 5 (a and b) to be presented at the UN High Level Meeting on the MDGs and commit to take a leading role in communicating the societal, economic, political and cultural benefits of investing in women and girls to key stakeholders. The full statement is attached.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Addresses the Women Deliver 2010 Conference
June 17th, 2010
Watch Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, as she addresses and opens the Women Deliver 2010 conference and calls for greater attention and action for maternal health, reproductive health, and women's health around the world. "Women deliver for the world," she says. "Now the world needs to deliver for women."
Maternal Health Conference Examines Progress, Challenges; Pushes Donors Toward US$12 Billion
June 5th, 2010
Women Deliver features global leaders from nearly 140 countries, including advocates, UN agencies, researchers, government officials, ministers of health and finance, and first ladies.
The world’s largest conference on women’s health and empowerment in more than a decade opens on Monday, June 7, with a call to increase funding commitments for maternal, reproductive, and newborn health by US$12 billion each year. At Women Deliver 2010, more than 3,000 representatives from nearly 140 countries will highlight the urgent need to save the lives of the 350,000-500,000 women who die from pregnancy- and childbirth-related causes each year, citing new economic rationale for investing in women.
New Report Shows Maternal Mortality Rates Rising in the US
March 16th, 2010
Women in the USA have a higher risk of dying of pregnancy-related complications than those in 40 other countries, according to a new report, Deadly Delivery: The Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA, by Amnesty International. And while countries around the world are fighting to reduce maternal mortality to meet Millennium Development Goal 5, maternal mortality ratios have more than doubled in the US from 1987 to 2006...
$63 Billion Budgeted for the US Global Health Initiative
February 3rd, 2010
The United States released an updated budget for the Global Health Initiative (GHI) showing plans to invest $63 billion over six years (2009-2014) to help partner countries improve health outcomes through strengthened health systems - with a particular focus on improving the health of women, newborns and children through programs including infectious disease, nutrition, maternal and child health, and safe water.
Ideas for Change: Investing in Women
January 25th, 2010
Change.org just launched the 2010 Ideas for Change in America competition and the White Ribbon Alliance has submitted a call to the US government to make maternal and newborn health a priority by investing in women. Their idea is titled: Invest in a More Stable World, Invest in Women.
Secretary Clinton Affirms the US Commitment to Reproductive Health
January 11th, 2010
WASHINGTON, DC – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for renewed support for and dedication to international family planning and reproductive health programs in a speech from the U.S. Department of State.
Watch It Live: Secretary Clinton’s Speech on Reproductive Health
January 5th, 2010
At 2:30 p.m. EST this Friday, January 8, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will make a major speech commemorating the 15th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and will reaffirm U.S. support for achieving the ICPD goals. As you know, the ICPD put forth a vision and framework for achieving sustainable development and reducing global poverty that made gender equality, human rights, and comprehensive reproductive health a priority - things we continue to advocate for today in U.S. foreign assistance.