all human should think Reproductive health and rights.
it is the agenda of our world.
following letter is public letter to Stephen Harper from civil society.
The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A2
Canada
Dear Prime Minister Harper:
Earlier this year, you announced that maternal health will be a development
priority at the G8 Summit in June. However, since this announcement, members
of your cabinet have publicly stated that the government’s maternal health
strategy will not address unsafe abortions in developing countries or
support access to family planning and contraceptives. While we commend your
commitment to “champion a major initiative to improve the health of women
and children in the world’s poorest regions,”[1] we know that in order to
do so, the initiative must address the comprehensive maternal and
reproductive health care needs of women, including access to safe abortion
care.
The scientific evidence is overwhelming―access to safe, legal abortion care
preserves women’s health and saves women’s lives. Unsafe abortion remains
one of the leading causes of maternal mortality in developing nations.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 70,000 women
worldwide die from unsafe abortions annually and millions more are injured,
many permanently.[2]
International health and development agencies, including Amnesty
International and the United Nations, consistently link contraception and
maternal health in the developing world. Recent research by the Guttmacher
Institute and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) also found that
seventy percent of maternal deaths would be averted and newborn deaths cut
nearly in half, if existing unmet family planning and maternal and newborn
health needs were met.[3]
At last year’s G8 Summit in Italy, the G8 heads of government agreed that
maternal and child health was one of the world’s most pressing global
health problems. They committed to “accelerat[ing] progress…on maternal
health, including through sexual and reproductive health care and services
and voluntary family planning.”[4] It is imperative that the work done in
Canada build on―not backtrack from―previous commitments. Sexual and
reproductive health and rights, especially access to family planning,
including contraception and safe abortion care, must be a central component
of the initiative.
The G8 Summit comes at a critical time. In addition to the G8 and G20
meetings in Canada, world leaders will gather at the United Nations in
September 2010, to take stock of progress on the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) including MDG5 to reduce maternal mortality by three quarters
and establish universal access to reproductive health care by 2015.[5] This
is the Goal toward which the least progress has been made by governments.
The G8 maternal and child health initiative must be situated within the
broader strategy toward achievement of the eight MDGs by 2015.
This is a significant opportunity to champion the health of some of the
world’s poorest women. We ask that you honour Canada’s long-standing
tradition of recognizing women’s reproductive rights and urge you to
include access to contraception and abortion care in your initiative to
improve maternal health care.
Sincerely,
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