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Global

Reducing maternal mortality is easy with safe abortion

May 16, 2008
Alicia Meulensteen, RH Reality Check

One hundred and eighty-eight women died today. You didn't read about it in the paper. No earthquake or flood killed them; they were not the victims of a war. Their deaths were entirely preventable. They died because the world's commitment to ending maternal mortality does not extend to making abortion safe.

While hemorrhage, eclampsia, sepsis, and obstructed labor account for many maternal deaths, the most easily prevented of the top maternal death culprits, unsafe abortion, remains a political, rather than health, issue in most of the world. Maternal mortality is a phenomena largely confined to the developing world, with 99% of maternal deaths -- over half a million women per year -- concentrated in low income countries. The World Health Organization estimates that almost 13% of all maternal deaths are caused by complications from unsafe abortions.

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