March 2001

Reproductive and Sexual Health:
Reducing Risks

U.S. Lags Behind Europe in Reproductive Health Care. Despite Recent Gains, Danger Remains Great in Developing World.

Women in the United States face greater risks to their sexual and reproductive health than their counterparts in most European nations -- but far less than those faced by women in Africa and Asia. In a study released on International Women’s Day (March 8), Population Action International and the global relief agency CARE rank reproductive health in 183 nations. Their report reveals dramatic disparities in the health of children and childbearing women in rich and poor countries:

• 515,000 women worldwide die each year in pregnancy and childbirth.
  
  
• One in 65 women in developing nations will die from reproductive health-related causes during her lifetime, 33 times the rate in advanced industrial nations.
  
  
• While the U.S. ranks a respectable 15th in the world in reproductive health, it has more teenage mothers than any other advanced industrial nation.

While much remains to be done to bring women worldwide up to a safe standard of care, public health measures have achieved extraordinary gains over the past generation. In 1950, life expectancy in developing nations was only 37. Today it is 63. In 1950, 28 percent of children in developing countries died before age 5. Today 90 percent survive. Such success indicates that with sufficient political will and financial resources, the ambitious goals for the year 2015 set by the 197 nations attending the 1994 Cairo population conference can in fact be met. Population experts suggest two key strategies:

• Increased funding for reproductive health services.
  
  
• Increased funding for programs providing economic and educational opportunities for women.

Such programs improve the health of both mothers and their children But these goals remain unfulfilled because commitments made in Cairo have not been met. The U.S. currently allocates less than half of what it pledged to give in 1994. How much should we be giving? Why should we care about the health of women and children in faraway places – or teenage mothers closer to home? What is the state of services for pregnant women in your own neighborhood?

During March of 2001, MMP offered the nation’s top experts on reproductive health in this country and worldwide in a brief 2-week public education campaign. In all, we scheduled 13 radio and television interviews in 7 states. Some 8 authorities were interviewed on what can be done to raise the standards for the health of women and children everywhere.

Guest Speakers by Topic:

Nada Chaya, Demographer, Population Action International, Author, A World of Difference: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Risks (2001)

Amy Coen, President, Population Action International

Sally Ethelston, Vice President for Communications, Population Action International, Co-chair, Sustainability Communicators Network

Tom Gardner-Outlaw, Research Associate, Population Action International

Margaret Greene, Senior Research Associate, Population Action International

Maurice Middleberg, Director - Health and Population Unit, CARE

Michael Marchino, Senior Director of Development, CARE