(Washington, DC) – Twenty years ago, the U.N. calculated that one woman worldwide died every minute from complications of pregnancy and childbirth – this adds up to 10 million per generation. Twenty years later, that figure has not changed. Nearly all of these deaths are preventable. Additionally, according to UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, more than 2 million women and girls are living with fistula and they are living reminders of health systems failures. Fistula is a devastating condition that is treatable and preventable.

Among industrialized countries, the United States has some of the highest maternal mortality rates – the U.S. is ranked 41 (out of 171 countries) worldwide, behind the Ukraine, Kuwait, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, among others. The best country is Ireland where an estimated 1 in 47,600 women will die from pregnancy-related causes; the worst is Niger where 1 in 7 women will die; In the United States the risk of women dying is 1 in 4,800.

Women’s rights activists in the United States and around the world are now saying “enough is enough” to maternal deaths and lifelong conditions, specifically obstetric fistula, that result in not having adequate pregnancy care.

Last October, the Speaker sent a small delegation of 5 members, Congresswomen Lois Capps (D-CA), Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Hilda Solis (D-CA), Gwen Moore (D-WI) and Donna Christensen (D-VI), to London last October to participate in the Women Deliver Conference.  There, 2,000 leaders from over 100 countries came together to take on the issues related to maternal mortality around the world.  In addition, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) put forward House Resolution 2114, “Repairing Young Women’s Lives Around the World Act” that would provide a U.S. voluntary contribution to UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, for the prevention, treatment and repair of obstetric fistula. UNFPA was created in 1969 with the strong support of the U.S. government. Today, 180 countries from all regions of the world (though currently not the United States) provide support to UNFPA’s voluntary programs operating in more than 154 countries.

As a part of this growing movement, “Women Delivering for Women,” members of Congress and women’s rights advocates, including U.N. Goodwill Ambassador and Spice Girl Geri Halliwell and CARE Ambassador Christy Turlington Burns, are heading to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, May 20 to raise awareness of the issues and demonstrate America’s commitment to reducing maternal mortality and pregnancy-related injuries in the United States and throughout the world.

As part of this commitment, House Resolution 1022, “Reducing Maternal Mortality Both at Home and Abroad,” is expected to be voted on by Congress. House Resolution 1022 was initiated by Congresswoman Capps and the other delegation members as a first step in a longer road toward new policies and more resources from the U.S. government. It is a “trial balloon” to build support on both sides of the aisle for a larger strategy that will eventually include needed policy changes in foreign assistance programs and domestic health care along with more funding and resources. It currently has 121 co-sponsors. Globally, other donor governments, the United Nations and NGOs are targeting the 35 countries with the highest maternal death rates – including Afghanistan, Haiti, Kenya, Nepal, Rwanda and other “hot spots” as well as those facing serious food and water challenges.

These are part of a strategy to move forward a broader agenda around women’s reproductive health by cultivating congressional support for issues with the biggest common denominator – women dying in childbirth and facing the horrors of obstetric fistula – by building bipartisan support on issues that have been stalled for the past two decades.

On TUESDAY, MAY 20, there will be two special events:

• UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador and Spice Girl Geri Halliwell and CARE Ambassador and Supermodel Christy Turlington Burns will join Congressional Women Leaders and Fistula Survivors and Advocates to rally for maternal health and bolster support for H.R. 1022. Confirmed Congresswomen speaking at the rally include Congresswomen Lois Capps (D-CA), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Gwen Moore (D-WI) and Hilda Solis (D-CA).
  • 1pm, Terrace, Cannon Office Building
    
• At a “hearing-style” briefing on Capitol Hill, two fistula survivors turned advocates, Sarah Omega Kindangasi from Kenya and Caroline Ditina from the Democratic Republic of Congo, will share their first-hand stories and experiences. Sarah and Caroline will be accompanied by their doctors, Dr. Merry Jennpher Othigo and Dr. Delores Nembunzu.
  • 3 to 4:30 p.m., U.S. Capitol, HC-5

Over the next 12-18 months, this global movement will continue to grow as women’s rights leaders and advocates around the world unite to advocate for improved maternal health services globally. 

Awareness of the issue is spreading around the world, through various means:

• A Walk to Beautiful is an award-winning feature-length documentary that tells the stories of five Ethiopian women who suffer from devastating childbirth injuries and embark on a journey to reclaim their lost dignity. Rejected by their husbands and ostracized by their communities, these women are left to spend the rest of their lives in loneliness and shame. They make the choice to take the long and arduous journey to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in search of a cure and a new life.
• The Campaign to End Fistula and the Fistula Foundation were recently featured on the PBS series NOVA in a documentary, A Walk to Beautiful. The program that featured the personal stories of the successes and challenges of fistulas survivors reached millions of viewers.
• Women Deliver, a coalition of groups headed by Family Care International and including World Health Organization, UNFPA, UNICEF, CARE, Save the Children and others, is working on achieving the Millennium Development Goals with an emphasis on MDG 5 – reducing maternal mortality rate by three quarters by 2015.
• The White Ribbon Alliance is an international coalition of individuals and organizations formed to promote increased public awareness of the need to make pregnancy and childbirth safe for all women and newborns in the world. It has launched a global campaign, A Promise to Mothers Lost. As part of the campaign, Stories of Mothers Lost is a stunning collection of fabric panels created by men and women to honor the lives of loved ones needlessly lost in 19 countries, from Afghanistan to Uganda and Bangladesh to Burkina Faso, India and Tanzania. This exhibition is traveling around the world including a recent exhibit in Washington, D.C.
• UbuMama and Teaming Up have partnered in a project dedicated to improving maternal health, specifically in developing countries, by establishing sustainable partnerships between college athletic teams and women at high risk of dying in childbirth. They aim to raise awareness and funding for grassroots education and community action on behalf of safe motherhood.
• One By One contributes to the elimination of obstetric fistula worldwide by engaging the public and providing financial support to those who treat and prevent fistula in the developing world.
• Global Giving has numerous projects and proposals to improve maternal health.
• These are just a handful of projects that are working to prevent the needless deaths and suffering related to pregnancy and child birth.

Forty years ago this month, family planning was officially declared a universal human right by the United Nations International Conference on Human Rights, meeting in Tehran. The Roman Catholic Church was among those present when the gathering declared that “Parents have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children.”

But governments around the world continue to deny this right – most recently in Chile.

On April 4, Chile’s Constitutional Court barred public health facilities from continuing to distribute emergency contraceptives. Much of the population depends on these facilities for their basic care. With abortion illegal under all circumstances in Chile, this decision removes one more way for women to avoid unintended pregnancy.

In the Philippines, hospitals and clinics in Manila City have been banned since 2000 from distributing any kind of modern birth control. Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration denied over-the-counter access to emergency contraception to women under 18. And international funding from donor countries and agencies for family planning has declined steadily since 1995.

More than 200 million women worldwide have an unmet need for contraceptives. Demand is expected to grow by 40 percent in the next 15 years: half the people on earth are under 25 and every year millions more of them become sexually active and seek smaller families. At the moment, 190 million women become pregnant each year, about half of them unintentionally. Nearly 50 million resort to abortions. One woman dies every minute from pregnancy-related complications – more than ten million deaths per generation.

One in three of these deaths could be avoided if women who want to use effective contraception had access to it. Family planning is a recognized human right, but it is not yet a reality.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, April 17 – Delegations from countries where mothers and children are at high risk of dying gathered here today for a three-day conference with funders and global health advocates on the ways and means of lowering that risk.

The estimated 450 participants planned to discuss the findings of a new report, entitled Countdown to 2015: Tracking Progress in Maternal, Newborn and Child Survival, which evaluated action since 1990 in 68 developing countries that account for 97 percent of maternal and child deaths worldwide.

It found that only 16 of those countries are on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing child deaths by half. Only three countries have lowered their maternal mortality rates significantly, indicating a general lack of movement toward MDG 5, which calls for reducing maternal deaths by 75 percent by 2015.

Delegations from 61 of those high-risk countries are expected to take part in the gathering at the Westin Grand Hotel here, which ends Saturday. Events include special sessions with parliamentarians and donor country representatives attending the 118th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

Dr. Gertrude Mongella, president of the Pan-African Parliament, said in a speech yesterday that parliamentarians and governments must lead the way in saving the lives of women and children. "There are 45,000 parliamentarians globally," she said. "If we all beat that drum--for maternal, newborn and child survival--the budgets would change. The time is over for talking. We need action."

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RESOURCES:

Tunga Namjilsuren, Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health; Hosted by WHO, Mobile: +41 79 649 71 45 Click here to read the statement released by Countdown to 2015 partners. Countdown to 2015 Web site

LONDON, April 15 – Most of the countries where mothers and newborns are at highest risk have not yet made adequate investments in the basic health services that could help them survive, according to a new report on global progress in that area.

The study, Countdown to 2015: Tracking Progress in Maternal, Newborn and Child Survival, was conducted by United Nations agencies, universities and non-governmental organizations to evaluate action since 1990 in 68 developing countries that account for 97 percent of maternal and child deaths worldwide. It is the subject of a three-day conference of government policy-makers, health experts and advocates that opens Thursday in Cape Town, South Africa.

"Children and mothers are dying because those who have the power to prevent their deaths choose not to act," said Dr. Richard Horton, editor of the British medical journal The Lancet, in an editorial introducing this week's special issue on the report.

The Cape Town conference April 17-19 will involve special sessions with parliamentarians invited from the 68 high-risk countries and donor nations attending the 118th Assembly there of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. They will debate the terms of a Statement of Commitment to steps toward achieving Millennium Development Goals on improving maternal and child health by 2015.

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SANTIAGO, Chile, April 7 – Chile’s highest court has banned distribution of the so-called “morning-after” contraceptive pill, ending a government program that has been distributing it free to women age 14 and older since February.

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WASHINGTON, March 26 – Another study finding that abstinence-only sex education courses are ineffective in curbing adolescent sexual risk-taking has also found that comprehensive programs do work, especially to reduce teen pregnancy.

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New York, NY – The next U.S. president can best create a more secure, healthy and prosperous world by securing women’s rights and health worldwide, two international advocacy groups said today.

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WASHINGTON, March 13 – Family planning seems likely to return to center stage in the U.S. congressional debate over US$50 billion in AIDS funding, which today won approval by the key Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

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NEW YORK, March 6– Investment in the education, credit and health care of women could generate enormous returns for strapped governments worldwide, according to advocates preparing for the 100th International Women’s Day on Friday.

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NEW YORK, March 5 – The United Nations today honored the New York-based organization Family Care International and Barbados activist Billie Antoinette Miller with its prestigious Population Awards, bestowed to recognize outstanding contributions to population issues worldwide.

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 - A renewal of President Bush’s AIDS program headed to the House floor today after a hard-fought compromise version won committee approval.

On a voice vote, the Foreign Affairs Committee authorized $50 billion over five years to keep spending steady in the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), much more than the $30 billion the administration had sought. The program has sent more than $19 billion overseas since 2003 to provide AIDS medicines and treatment to nearly 1.5 million people.

In a late-night negotiation session, Democrats compromised on some social and policy restrictions on the funding, notably the requirement that a third of AIDS prevention spending go to abstinence-only sex education programs. The new language calls for “balanced funding” of “evidence-based” programs for abstinence, fidelity and condom-use education, but also requires reports to Congress if less than half of spending in any country for preventing sexual transmission goes for the first two. That significantly lowers the amount at stake. Recent research has shown that abstinence-only approaches are ineffective.

Several other proposed changes to the existing program were abandoned in the negotiations. One would have dropped the requirement for funded groups to pledge opposition to prostitution and sex trafficking. Another would have removed the requirement that the funds be spent only against HIV/AIDS and not for other reproductive health services.

Jon O’Brien, president of Catholics for Choice, said lobbying by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had secured those two provisions. “The bishops put politics over the health and lives of those in need,” he said.

“Many of us were operating on the assumption that evidence and field experience was going to drive this bill,” said Jodi L. Jacobson, director of advocacy for the American Jewish World Service. She said the prostitution pledge is counter-productive in efforts to enlist sex workers in the battle against AIDS.

“This bipartisan agreement will greatly facilitate congressional consideration of this vitally important legislation,” said acting committee chair Howard L. Berman (D-CA). He said he expected it to become law shortly.

NEW YORK, Feb. 25 – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon opened a high-level session on women today with a call on world leaders to end violence against women. He announced a three-year campaign to step up global advocacy on behalf of women, with UN agencies leading by example and forging new partnerships and programs worldwide.

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NEW YORK, Feb. 14 – In a valentine to mothers everywhere, the United Nations agency dedicated to women’s health today announced plans to raise nearly $500 million in the next four years to boost maternal health systems and services around the world.

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, will set up a special fund in partnership with governments, other UN agencies and organizations to support action in 75 countries where maternal and newborn mortality rates are greatest.

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 – President Bush’s proposed 2009 budget would cut family planning funding at home and abroad by drastic amounts while increasing support for abstinence-only sex education programs that don’t work, reproductive health advocates charged today.

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NAIROBI, Kenya—Post-election rioting and chaos in Kenya increasingly involves rapes and sexual violence against women and children, according to United Nations officials here.

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