Howard Dean: Global Suffering Demands Global Response
SitNews.us

NOV 23, 2004

The Third World War
By Gov. Howard Dean, M.D.
 
The war in Afghanistan was a victory for international morality, not only for taking away a haven for terrorists, but also for ending the brutal suppression of the rights of women that the Taliban had imposed.

 Yet before we congratulate ourselves too much, consider the tens of thousands of women and men who have died as a result of a misguided U.S. policy (the "gag rule") that denies family planning funds to any organization that, in countries where abortion is legal,  provides abortion-related information or services (using private funds), along with other reproductive health services. In some countries, a third of the family planning clinics have closed as a result of the withdrawal of U.S. funds.

 Some special interest groups are attempting to bring about a total ban on U.S. funding for family planning services even by organizations that abide by the gag rule by pumping out phony statistics and misleading press releases implying that world population growth has nearly stopped and is about to go into decline. Nothing could be further from the truth. Net growth has slowed slightly, but the world's population is still growing by 76 million per year - the equivalent of adding a new U.S. population every four years.

 The human suffering caused by these misguided policies and inadequate funding is staggering:

 •    600,000 women and girls die worldwide every year from pregnancy and childbirth.

•    140,000 women bleed to death each year during childbirth.

•    75,000 women die each year trying to end their pregnancies. The U.N. estimates that worldwide, 50,000 women and girls try to induce abortions on themselves each day (18.3 million per year). Many of those who survive face life-long, disabling pain.

•    Approximately 100,000 women die each year from infection, and another 40,000 women die from the agony of prolonged labor. And those are only the fatalities. UNICEF's statistics show that for every woman who dies, 30 survive with gruesome injuries and disabilities. That's more than 17 million women per year.

Add to that the exhausting burden of repeated pregnancies and births, and you have a global picture of suffering that demands global response.

(click here to read the entire story)