Background Paper Abstract:
Each year at least 350,000 women around the world die from complications related to pregnancy. Although pregnancy is not a disease, roughly 1,400 women die each day from causes such as hemorrhage, sepsis, eclampsia, obstructed delivery, unsafe abortions, or post-abortion complications. Most of these deaths are entirely preventable . . .
DOWNLOAD AND READ THE BACKGROUND PAPER HERE. The Conference welcomes all constructive comments within the comment section below. These papers have been prepared by WCL Students Fellows for the purpose of guiding the discussions during the panel sessions and the working groups. They are not official papers of PAHO or WCL and are not intended to reflect the opinions or official positions of those institutions.
One Response to “Background Paper: Women & Adolescents”
Unfortunately I will not be able to participate in the working group and therefore share my comments via this medium.
General:
This is a very good and useful paper.
- It will however be more useful for PAHO purposes in understanding and applying the human rights perspective related to maternal mortality if the paper incorporated data from our region. Besides PAHO, also UNFPA and the Guttmacher institute has excellent information on family planning, abortion and emergency contraception for our region.
- The CAIRO and Beijing Program for Action should be mentioned at the very beginning of the documents to frame women’s rights to reproductive health and information. Cairo especially, marked an ideological change from demographic interests to a rights framework of integrated reproductive health that includes a whole package: MCH services, family planning, avoiding abortion complication, access to information and sexuality education, and violence against women, etc . The Document starts out only with the MDG framework which is limiting.
- Violence against women contributes to maternal mortality either through direct harm, or interfering with access to services and should be mentioned, especially within the framework of the Belem do Para convention the only regional framework that addresses this prevalent human rights and public health problem.
- Likewise, there should be more information on emergency contraception that is very contentious in the LAC region. Even though it is legal in many countries, many providers will not make this method available.
- There should be more information on abortion in LAC, where its contribution to MM is higher than the 13% (see Guttmacher fact sheet). In almost al countries abortion is illegal and in some (as you have mentioned) there has been a trend to more strongly penalize abortion even under adverse circumstances (rape, incest, mothers life), while in some municipalities abortion has been legalized (Mexico DF). Also the “”Reducing Risk and Injury” model of Uruguay provides an interesting model to provide counseling services to women, to protect their right to life and health related to abortion complications and death. Uruguay has been able to attain zero MMR.
Specific
p2 3rd line top, correlated with age,… and education
p5. end 1st paragraph… from abortion, as well as pregnancy and labor
p.5. 2nd para 2nd sentence….structures( including factors…. and gender inequality)
p9. last sentence: Contraceptives empower women to control their own sexual and reproductive choices, prevent pregnancies that can place women at risk when these occur early or late in life, when they are multiple and without spacing, and moreover they prevent unwanted or unplanned pregnancies and subsequently abortion complications and related deaths.
p. 10, 3rd para: lack of or inappropriate information
p.10.Para 5, include poor in category of women in situations of vulnerability
p.11 Para 1, lack of information and economic and education opportunities
p.11. Para 3, as mentioned, Cairo should be mentioned at the beginning of the paper.
p. 12 Para 3, WHO list of essential medicines is not a treaty body
p.14. Para 3, include discussion of penalizing abortion
Dr. Marijke Velzeboer-Salcedo
Coordinator, Gender, Diversity and Human Rights
PanAmerican Health Organization
Washington, DC
Tel: 202 974 3235
http://www.paho.org/gdr