By Aquib Yacoob, Student Area Coordinator for New York
Last Monday afternoon, I joined my fellow students from Townsend Harris High School’s Amnesty International chapter, lining the steps of the Queens Library Flushing Branch in silent protest of the use of torture by the US government and standing in solidarity with torture survivor, Maher Arar.
Most maternal deaths are entirely preventable. Yet, while the world is making progress in fighting maternal mortality, far too many women are still losing their lives.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the most prominent global anti-poverty initiative ever undertaken. The goals set out targets for alleviating extreme poverty, including reducing maternal deaths by 75% (MDG5), by 2015. However, even this modest target will not be met by the deadline unless efforts are significantly stepped up.
Meeting the maternal mortality target, for example, would require a 5.5% annual reduction in maternal deaths since 1990, and the world has seen only 2.3% annual improvement. A woman still dies from complications of pregnancy or childbirth every 90 seconds.
A woman holds a photograph of Tatia Oden French, who died in 2001 after an induced labor.
This year, Mom won’t be the only person receiving a Mother’s Day card.
Giving birth in the United States is more dangerous than in 49 other countries. In the last 24 hours, around the world, almost 1,000 women have died from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. Maternal health is a human right — and there’s no better time than Mother’s Day to let Congress and other leaders around the world know that you care about the lives of women worldwide.
Join the fight for maternal health by requesting Mother’s Day action cards to send to U.S. and world decision-makers. Let us know how many cards you’d like by registering online (they come in sets of six).
These Mother’s Day cards aren’t destined for the shoebox or the refrigerator. Send them back to us and we’ll take them straight to your Members of Congress, urging them to support the Maternal Health Accountability Act, which would take vital steps to improve maternal health in the U.S. We’ll send other cards to leaders in Peru and Burkina Faso, urging them to improve their countries’ troubling maternal health records.