Pro-Life Works: Maternal Mortality

April 7, 2010

Maternal Mortality Agenda North of the Border

Christopher Donatto

Senior Intern

The G8 Summit, which is a gathering of the top 8 leading world economic powers, will be held in Huntsville, Ontario, Canada on June 25-27, 2010.  The purpose of the G8 Summit is to discuss and develop common approaches to some of the challenges the world is facing.  Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has indicated that one of his top priorities at this year’s G8 is to promote a better maternal mortality rate, a topic that cannot be discussed without including “reproductive health” issues.  Prime Minister Harper has been reluctant to include contraception in his agenda, and has made it known that he is not willing to re-open the debate on abortion, which has been legal in Canada since 1988.

According to Dimitri Soudas, spokesman for the Prime Minister, “Throughout his political career, the Prime Minister has been clear on this issue…We will not introduce or support legislation on abortion.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been a very strong supporter of women’s “rights” and “reproductive health” options.  She is now attacking Prime Minister Harper for not including abortion in his agenda.  She claims, “You cannot have maternal health without reproductive health…and reproductive health includes contraception and family planning and access to legal, safe abortion.”

If Hillary Clinton wants to reduce the maternal mortality rate, research shows that she is going about it the wrong way with abortion.  According Dr. Elard Koch, an epidemiologist on the medical faculty at the University of Chile in Santiago, Chile, access to prenatal care and professional birth attendants in a hospital setting are the best way to decrease maternal mortality rates. 

"From 1960 onwards, there has been a breakthrough in the public health system and primary care [in Chile],” Dr. Koch said.  The maternal mortality rate in Chile dropped from 275 out of 100,000 births in 1960 to 18.7 in 2000.  Due to the protection of unborn life in Chile’s constitution and penal laws, the decline is not attributable to access to legal abortions.

Though he is not introducing legislation to stop abortions in his own country, Prime Minister Harper is on the right track, ethically and scientifically, according to the maternal mortality rates in some developing countries where abortion is less accessible.  Mauritius, an island nation off the coast of Africa in the southwest Indian Ocean, has the most protective laws for the unborn and the lowest mortality rate in the world.  Ethiopia and South Africa have the most lenient abortion laws and the highest mortality rate – a staggering 400 deaths per 100,000 pregnancies in South Africa.

Canada’s G8 initiative seeks to use money and other resources from governmental, non-governmental, and private foundations to address maternal and child mortality in developing countries.  It takes into consideration nutrition, immunizations, and clean water.  Prime Minister Harper does not wish to open the abortion debate in Canada where abortion is legal, but he also does not want to advance Clinton’s agenda to promote an increase in abortions in developing countries.