Mother's Day in the Developing World

We know how to save the lives of women in the developing world, we just need to do it.

As we prepare to celebrate Mother’s Day, the future doesn’t look so bright for women in the developing world.

This week, some of the world’s top doctors met in Vancouver to share their extraordinary research on how we can save lives and improve the future of the world’s most vulnerable people. But a dark cloud hung over the meeting. It was impossible to miss the deep concern, fear, and shock these scientists felt about the Canadian government’s position on maternal and child health.

Only a few months ago, these same physicians were overjoyed when they heard that Canada was going to make maternal and child health a priority at this summer's G8 summit in Ontario. They understand very well the interplay between the fate of a mother and that of her children. Their joy, however, turned to shock when this life and death issue turned political and regressive.

These scientists asked: Why is Canada putting itself in a corner, separate from all other G8 nations on the abortion issue? Why does Canada want to deprive woman in developing countries from having the same reproductive rights as Canadian women? Why is Canada cutting funding to groups such as Plan International and Match International, groups that have provided women access to family planning and safe abortions where it is legal, funded violence prevention initiatives, combated the practice of female genital mutilation, and supported gender equality?

They wondered: Doesn’t the Canadian government know that 63,000 women die every year from septic abortions and that these deaths are entirely preventable? Don’t they know that when a mother dies in a low-income country, more than half of her children under the age of five will also perish? Don’t they know that rape is used as a tool of war and that men are frequently forced at gunpoint to rape female members of their family, with some of these women becoming pregnant as a result of this horrific act?

These physicians were aghast that the debate in Canada has turned so ugly. They were deeply worried that this will derail efforts to enable Canada to lead the other G8 nations to develop and implement a plan of action that can move their excellent research from the bench to the bedside. Such a plan would save the lives of the nearly nine million children who die every year from largely preventable causes.

Prime Minister Harper and members of his caucus may have strong personal views against abortion. That is their right. However, their views can certainly be squared with implementing a plan to reduce maternal and childhood mortality and morbidity that is based on sound medical science. Canada could propose that each G8 nation take a leadership role in providing one of the inputs needed to allow people to access the primary care that is the cornerstone to improving the health of an entire population.

The United States could take the lead in training health care workers. Canada could do the same for ensuring access to micronutrients, clean water, and sanitation. France could handle access to family planning and safe abortions. Each country would then be the lead coordinator that could mobilize other countries, NGOs, multilateral agencies, and the recipient countries to get these inputs where they are needed. Doing this would dramatically reduce the unconscionable loss of 344,000 pregnant women and nine million children from preventable or treatable causes.

With such a system, you could also treat 80 per cent of what comes through an emergency room in a developing country, including the world’s major killers: pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, tuberculosis, malnutrition, and HIV/AIDS. It would enable Harper and his caucus to be true to their personal views on abortion while still enabling women in other countries to have access to the same lifesaving options that women in Canada have.

The world can be an unspeakably horrific place. Rape and brutality are all too prevalent in too many places. Women do get pregnant in these circumstances and unsafe abortions do occur. If we want to be pro-life, then surely giving women access to a full array of family planning options, including safe abortions where it is legal, is a way to do it.

Mother’s Day is this weekend. Let us redouble our efforts to implement what scientists know will save the lives of mothers.