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updated 7/29/04     Home Page >> talks at recent League forums

Saving Women’s Lives: The Right Thing to Do

Positions of the League of Women Voters

I would like to remind us of some of the relevant principles that the League of Women Voters supports. I quote from the LWV’s website, the section "Where We Stand."

"The League strongly supports the central role of the United Nations in addressing the social, economic, and humanitarian needs of all people. The advancement and empowerment of women is fundamental to achieving peace and prosperity and should be a high priority for UN programs. Other areas for emphasis include:
On Social Policy, the League strives to
The League’s Public Policy on Reproductive Choice is to protect the constitutional right of privacy of the individual to make reproductive choices.

In espousing these policies I think that the League of Women Voters is approaching a "Rights-Based Approach to Reproductive Health," even if it does not yet formally use the term.

The December 2003 issue of Outlook, published by PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, of Seattle) is devoted entirely to this subject.

From page 2 of Outlook, I quote:

"The 1994 ICPD meeting in Cairo created a comprehensive framework to realize reproductive rights and health. Women’s advocates persuaded governments to reject population policies focused solely on reducing fertility and to forge a new approach that focused instead on meeting individual women’s needs for a wide array of reproductive health services.

"The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing confirmed and built on the link established in Cairo between women’s reproductive rights and human rights already recognized by international treaties and national laws." (end quote)

I recommend this copy of Outlook to those of you who are following the discussion of this new approach, and I have brought copies of Outlook for you.

Two New Initiatives from UNFPA

1. Fistulas and Early Childbearing

Millions of young women become pregnant each year, before their bodies have fully matured, increasing their risk of complications during childbirth. Obstetric fistula is the most devastating disability that can happen to a young woman who survives a difficult childbirth.

During obstructed labor, the prolonged pressure of the baby’s head against the mother’s pelvis cuts off the blood supply to the soft tissues surrounding her bladder, rectum, and vagina. The injured tissue then rots away, leaving a hole or fistula. The baby usually dies and the woman is left with humiliating, chronic incontinence. She may also suffer from frequent bladder infections, ulceration of the genital areas, and nerve damage to her legs.

The results are life shattering. Rather than being comforted for the loss of her child, she is often rejected by her husband, shunned by the community and blamed for her condition. While some women receive support from their families, others are forced to beg for a living. Surgical repair has up to a 90 per cent success rate and women can usually have more children. Sadly, most poor women are either unaware that surgery is available, or cannot access or afford it.

Until now it was estimated that two million women were living with fistulas worldwide. However, a new report by UNFPA and EngenderHealth indicates that these figures are too low. The report maps the occurrence of fistula in nine African countries and indicates that there could be as many as one million women living with fistula in Nigeria alone.

UNFPA is working with partners to prevent and treat fistula in Africa and Asia. In Chad, for example, 150 women underwent fistula surgery through UNFPA support. Fistula was once common throughout the world, but has been eradicated in areas such as Europe and North America through improved obstetric care. Fistulas are virtually unknown in places where early marriage is discouraged, young women are educated about their bodies and skilled medical care—including emergency referrals—is provided at childbirth.

2. Reproductive Health for Communities in Crisis

As a UNFPA health worker in El Salvador said:
"Most of us don’t think about it, but women give birth during hurricanes, war and earthquakes. They are often the least obvious victims, yet many need help to have their babies safely."

The impact of an earthquake, flood, or war on reproductive health can be devastating. Communities in crisis are suddenly deprived of reproductive health information and service. Access is cut off, yet needs persist, even escalate. A large number of refugees and internally displaced women will be pregnant, facing delivery under dangerous condition; others may be victims of violence including rape.

UNFPA is committed to assisting and protecting women, men and youth made vulnerable by natural disaster, armed conflict, persecution and other causes. This is a commitment to refugees forced to flee their home country, to the internally displaced uprooted within national boundaries, and to all those affected when a community is in crisis.

Rapid response to emergencies includes the immediate shipment of supplies and equipment to help meet the minimum requirements in a crisis, such as enabling pregnant women to deliver in a clean environment. UNFPA delivers thousands of birthing kits. This is a birthing kit. It contains a clean plastic sheet to lie upon, a bar of soap, and a new razor blade to cut the umbilical cord. That’s all, but these things are not available in many of the places where UNFPA works. These services address the life-and-death complications of pregnancy and delivery, the transmission of sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS, adolescent health, violence against women, and access to condoms and other contraceptives.

The new unit of the Fund responsible for these activities is the Humanitarian Response Group, which works closely with partners in governments, UN agencies and non-governmental organizations to see that reproductive health is an integrated part of restoring primary health services after catastrophes.

Let me list the regions and some of the countries and territories receiving UNFPA emergency reproductive health assistance in crises since 1994.

34 Million Friends of UNFPA

Let me return to discussing the cut-off of funds for UNFPA, and a more heartening reaction to President Bush’s decision. There was an extraordinary and angry and emotional press response to the news that UNFPA would receive nothing from the United States. More than one hundred fifty editorials and OpEd pieces supportive of funding for UNFPA appeared in the weeks that followed, with titles such as "Abortion Politics," "Washington and Women," "Family Planning: Ignore the Extremists and Release Funds for the UN." I’ve seen only five editorials insisting that the decision was right and proper; from The Weekly Standard in Washington, D.C., The Orange County Register, in California, a paper in Jackson, Florida, one in Oklahoma, and The Wall Street Journal.

I want to read three excerpts from columnists whom you know:

Nicholas D. Kristoff, The New York Times, wrote:
"The reality is that the UN Population Fund is active not only in providing contraception but in waging a lonely struggle to oppose female genital mutilation, the spread of AIDS and the scourge of mothers dying in childbirth. The debate about funding a United Nations program may seem an arcane budget issue. But for ordinary Sudanese teenagers, less money has more practical consequences: for more genital mutilation, more AIDS and more fistula—is that what the Bush administration wants to stand for?

David S. Broder, The Washington Post:
"Most administrations draw the line at compromises that cost lives. The Bush administration now has crossed that line—not accidentally but deliberately."

Ellen Goodman, Boston Globe Syndicated Columnist:
"In an effort to punish China, the same China that we engage with every day, we are going to withhold money, which wouldn’t go to China anyway, from the rest of the world’s women."

It was then that two American women did something about this. Jane Roberts of California and Lois Abraham of New Mexico, who did not know each other, woke up to hear of the President’s decision on the news and went to their computers with the same idea. Jane Roberts sent a letter to the Sun Newspaper in San Bernardino, California, asking that "as an exercise in outraged democracy, would 34 million Americans please send $1 each to UNFPA." Lois Abraham independently emailed forty friends asking them to donate one dollar to UNFPA and to tell ten more friends about the impact of the U. S. funding cut on women’s lives and the need to take immediate action. An extraordinary and truly grass roots campaign began.

In November 2002, Jane and Lois wrote to every chapter of the League of Women Voters and to every Women’s Studies Department in the colleges and universities of the United States. They have spoken to hundreds of groups, they have been written about in MS magazine and they have been interviewed for the Oprah show. They have traveled to Europe to start a 34 Million Friends off-shoot there and they have visited UNFPA projects in Senegal and Mali and Nicaragua.

I have met Lois and Jane several times, most recently when they spoke to the directors meeting of the U.S. Committee in New York in December. They are as enthusiastic and determined as ever. Jane, who describes herself as a retired French teacher and tennis coach, works full time on the campaign. Lois, who is a practicing lawyer, is equally indefatigable. They are two extraordinary women.

In the months since Lois and Jane began their campaign, a remarkable national grassroots movement across the country and across the political spectrum has been created—with a goal of finding 34 Million Friends of UNFPA willing to commit and contribute to protecting the health and saving lives of women around the world. The resulting message sent by more than 100,000 citizens is clear: providing family planning, safe motherhood and HIV/AIDS prevention services are humanitarian issues supported by millions of Americans.

This is not an elaborate fundraising program, but rather is one of the most spontaneous, informal, word of mouth, grassroots efforts ever. It relies on everybody’s pitching in a little bit to make a huge difference. It is open to every individual’s creativity and initiative. We are grateful to Ted Turner’s Better World Fund for covering all the administrative costs of the 34 Million Friends Campaign.

The U.S. Committee for UNFPA, which is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation, to which contributions are tax deductible, is sponsoring the 34 Million Friends Campaign. If you look at its web site you will find that more than $1,850, 000 has been contributed for UNFPA as of today. Contributors from New Hampshire—540; from Vermont—611.

I will give you some materials from the 34 Million Friends Campaign. Please send a contribution if you can, (and even one dollar is truly welcome), or enlist a group of friends to add to the 34 Million. I will also put out on the table a compilation of the many editorials about President Bush’s withholding funds from the UNFPA. Do look through it, but please don’t take it away. It is my only copy and it gives me some comfort to leaf through it when I become exasperated. UNFPA does have many friends.

Support by United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA/USA)

In the last few days, as the possibility arises that the White House will find still another means to withhold funding from UNFPA, we have found a new ally. The United Nations Association of the United States of America has asked its members to send an email via the UNA/USA to the President and to Secretary of State Powell urging that the authorized $34 million be released to UNFPA. One need not be a member of UNA/USA to do this. You may simply go to their website, register your name and address with them, and they will provide the text of an appropriate email that you may edit and change to suit yourself and send it off to UNA/USA for their transmission to the President. I have already done so, and so have another 500 people in the last few days. Copies of UNA’s email form are available here.

The UNA/USA is also asking its members to send letters to the editors of their local newspapers to urge that they support funding of the UNFPA. They have drafted letters that might be sent. I have brought copies of their letter and the draft letters that you are urged to use if you wish to support the funding of the UNFPA.

List of Websites

I have relied heavily on the work of others in gathering the information for this talk. Websites are quite marvelous and I wish to share with you a list of several from which you can obtain information about the U.S. Committee, the UNFPA, and other organizations. Copies of a Websites List will be available with the other documents. (See below.)

Finally: Four Things to Think About:

  1.  For many years poll after poll in the United States has confirmed that a majority of Americans recognize the need for reproductive health care and voluntary family planning services in the developing world. A similar majority believes that it is appropriate and desirable that the United States Government support international voluntary family planning programs.
  2. President George W. Bush’s grandmother started the Connecticut Family Planning Association.
  3. Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) attended the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994.
  4. Saving women’s lives is the right thing to do.

Thank you very much.

List of Websites provided by Paul Micou

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