- Comprehensive Sexual and Reproductive Health
- Family Planning
- Women, Girls, and HIV
- Maternal Health
- U.S. Foreign Policy & Funding
- Watch: Making U.S. Foreign Assistance Work for Women and Girls in Ethiopia
- Global Health Initiative
- Integrating HIV/AIDS and Sexual and Reproductive Health: U.S. Foreign Policy
- Female Condoms: Dual Protection
- Global Gag Rule
- Helms Amendment
- Foreign Assistance Budget
- Foreign Assistance Reform
- Kemp-Kasten Amendment
- Abstinence & Fidelity
- Anti-Prostitution Pledge
- The Critical Role of Advocacy in Foreign Assistance
- Why Women and Girls?
Maternal Health
Pregnancy continues to carry a high risk of death worldwide, despite numerous commitments to address the issues that fuel maternal mortality. An estimated 500,000 women die each year from complications of pregnancy and childbirth, most from preventable causes. Approximately 74,000 of these deaths are due to unsafe abortion. Millions of women experience serious, debilitating health conditions as a result of pregnancy and childbirth complications each year. Almost all (99 percent) of the world’s maternal deaths and injuries occur in developing countries.
Health systems often do not prioritize maternal health, making maternity care difficult to access. Also, because of women’s low status in many societies, maternal health services are often of poor quality and lack attention to human rights.
Young women are at heightened risk of complications and death during pregnancy and childbirth, particularly those whose bodies are not as developed due to chronic malnutrition. Early child marriage and taboos on adolescent sexuality contribute to teen pregnancies by denying girls the power, information, and tools to postpone childbearing.
Urge your Senators to Support International Family Planning Funding
Tell your Senators that you support full funding for international family planning and a permanent repeal of the Global Gag Rule.
Take Action
Tell your Representative to Support the United Nations
Congress is now considering a bill (H.R. 2829) that would effectively end our relationship with the United Nations. Act now and tell your Representative to oppose this harmful piece of legislation.
Take Action
Take Action on the Global Gag Rule
Join your voice with others and urge your member of Congress to co-sponsor the Global Democracy Promotion Act of 2011, a bill that would create a legislative barrier to block attempts by a future administration to re-instate the Global Gag Rule.
Take Action
Raise your voice for the Global Sexual and Reproductive Health Act
Ask your Representative to co-sponsor the Global Sexual and Reproductive Health Act (H.R. 1319), newly introduced legislation that promotes a truly comprehensive and integrated approach to U.S. international reproductive health programs.
Take Action
Tell your Representative to Oppose Elimination of International Family Planning Funding
The House is currently debating a spending bill (H.R. 1) that, as it stands, would drastically decrease funding for international family planning and reproductive health, global HIV/AIDS, and maternal and child health programs and services. We need you to speak out for women's health and rights today!
Take Action
Help Make U.S. Global AIDS Programs Work for Women
Send a postcard to Ambassador Goosby, the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, and urge him to make U.S. global AIDS programs and policies work harder and better for women and girls worldwide.
Take Action
- Association of Reproductive Health Professionals
- Center for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA)
- EngenderHealth
- Family Care International
- Family Health International
- Guttmacher Institute
- International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)
- International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC)
- Ipas
- JHPIEGO
- National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA)
- Population Reference Bureau
- Reproductive Health Matters
- Reproductive Health Outlook
- The Global Campaign for Microbicides
Source356,000 - Each year, in developing countries, 356,000 women die from pregnancy-related causes.
Source50% - Only 50% of women who give birth each year receive antenatal, delivery, and newborn care.
Source99% - More than 99% of the estimated 358,000 maternal deaths each year occur in developing countries.
Source15% - Worldwide, nearly 15% of adult women's deaths occur during maternity.
Women and HIV
What is it with women and girls? Why are we always left behind? Why can’t we choose the things we want to be a part of? Why must we always race to the front, rather than be left peacefully alone when we would rather not partake? Is it because, as women, we are strong, powerful, and the foundation of our society?
WHO cuts global estimate for maternal deaths
GENEVA — The World Health Organization said Wednesday that fewer women die each year from complications during pregnancy and childbirth than previously estimated, but efforts to sharply cut maternal mortality by 2015 are still off track. A new WHO report found that 358,000 women died during pregnancy or childbirth in 2008, mostly in poor countries of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
ETHIOPIA: Tackling the perils of pregnancy
Childbirth will prove fatal for one in 27 women in Ethiopia and much of the rest of the continent, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), versus a rate of one in 8,000 in industrialized countries
Hillary Clinton Touts Global Health Initiative as Key Foreign Policy Tool
"What exactly does maternal health or immunizations or the fight against HIV and AIDS have to do with foreign policy?" Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton queried a packed crowd of faculty and students at the Johns Hopkins School of Advance International Studies on Monday. "Well, my answer is 'everything.' "
Ethiopia: U.S. foreign policy and unsafe abortion in Africa
United States foreign policy abortion restrictions have often hampered African NGOs’ efforts to reduce deaths and disabilities associated with unsafe abortion procedures. In a positive recent development, however, the fight for African women’s access to safe abortion services took a small but important step forward.
MDG Goals Panned for Isolating Women’s Rights
The Millennium Development Goals' treatment of gender equality and women's empowerment as a "key goal in itself" and not as a "basic human right."
Another Pill That Could Cause a Revolution
Could the decades-long global impasse over abortion worldwide be overcome — by little white pills costing less than $1 each?
G8 Leaders Give Maternal Health $10 Million
Kampala — The G8 leaders have committed $10 million annually to fund maternal and child health in Africa and other developing nations, the AU chairman, Malawi president Prof. Bingu Wa Mutharika, has said.
What Does Family Planning Have to do With HIV? Everything.
Voluntary family planning is an indispensible component of HIV prevention and treatment.
Download this PDF
File Under: Fact Sheets
Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Ethiopia
On July 5-9, 2010, three U.S. state legislators traveled to Ethiopia to better understand the role of U.S. foreign assistance aimed at improving the quality of reproductive health care. This report documents that trip and makes recommendations for improving effectiveness of U.S. foreign assistance to advance the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls in Ethiopia.
Download this PDFFile Under: Research Documents
Fact Sheet: U.S. Global HEALTH Act of 2010
The U.S. Global HEALTH Act of 2010 (H.R. 4933) establishes a strategy to coordinate health-related U.S. foreign assistance and to assist developing countries in strengthening their indigenous health workforces and improving delivery of health services.
Download this PDFFile Under: Fact Sheets
The Case for Comprehensive: Dominican Republic
Rising HIV prevalence for young women and high rates of teen pregnancy are strong indicators of the gaps in the Dominican Republic’s sexual and reproductive health care. Moreover, despite the fact that almost all births are attended by skilled providers, maternal mortality is alarmingly high.
Download this PDFFile Under: Country Profiles
The Case for Comprehensive: Botswana
Botswana appears to be a series of contradictions. Although economically better off than its neighbors, with relatively good roads, solid communications network, and 24-hour hospitals fairly well distributed throughout the country, Botswana nevertheless has serious barriers to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care.
Download this PDFFile Under: Country Profiles
Maternal Health Topics
Rights-Based Maternity Services
The Dominican Republic has high rates of maternal mortality, yet almost all women technically have skilled attendants at birth.
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