Wednesday 3 June 2009

Maternal reproductive health at risk.

Last week we wrote about a campaign in Nigeria to end unwanted pregnancies.

This week, the New York Times looks at Tanzania and what happens there when women have few or no reproductive health options.
Abortion is illegal in Tanzania (except to save the mother’s life or health), so women and girls turn to amateurs, who may dose them with herbs or other concoctions, pummel their bellies or insert objects vaginally. Infections, bleeding and punctures of the uterus or bowel can result, and can be fatal. Doctors treating women after these bungled attempts sometimes have no choice but to remove the uterus.

Pregnancy and childbirth are among the greatest dangers that women face in Africa, which has the world’s highest rates of maternal mortality — at least 100 times those in developed countries. Abortion accounts for a significant part of the death toll.

Maternal mortality is high in Tanzania: for every 100,000 births, 950 women die.

Pregnancy kills one woman per minute.

According to the United Nations, a woman’s chance of dying in childbirth in the United States is 1 in 4,800. In Sierra Leone, it's 1 in 8.

A small amount of Christian love and most of all, money diverted from abortion-criminalizing organizations could do much to help programs in support of maternal health care in the US and in Africa.

Unfortunately, HATE winds up the donation crank in the shrieeekkking masses; their CEOs - men like Randall Terry - like the income and don't want their cash flow impended by restrictions on their marketing techniques.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A small amount of Christian love... could do much to help programs in support of maternal health care in the US and in Africa.

Like this?

http://www.wvi.org/wvi/wviweb.nsf/updates/7355958FFA704270882575720002DB29?opendocument

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