Maternal Mortality

The Right to Maternal Health

Around the world, one woman dies every minute in pregnancy or childbirth -- that's more than half a million women every year. The vast majority of these deaths are preventable. As Mahmoud Fathalla, past president of the International Federation of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said:

"Women are not dying of diseases we can't treat. ... They are dying because societies have yet to make the decision that their lives are worth saving."

Since 2000, the world's anti-poverty agenda has been dictated by the Millennium Development Goals, a set of targets ranging from cutting extreme poverty in half to ensuring universal primary education. Of all the goals, MDG 5 -- cutting the maternal mortality ratio by 75% -- has seen by far the least progress, less than 1% per year by the most optimistic estimates. Of all the central development issues, maternal mortality needs the most urgent action.

That tide is turning, with maternal mortality breaking into public consciousness as a key human rights issue. Opinion-shapers like New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, Sarah Brown, Britain's "first lady", and Mary Robinson champion it. (Read Ms. Robinson's Boston Globe op-ed, co-written with right to health expert and AI adviser Alicia Yamin.) In June, the U.N. Human Rights Council passed a resolution recognizing maternal mortality as a human rights concern.

Amnesty International is campaigning for the right to maternal health in:

Additional resources:

Reducing Maternal Mortality (U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health)
Surviving Pregnancy and Childbirth (Center for Reproductive Rights)