Worldwide Declines in Unborn & Already-Born Child Mortality

Some recent news:

--Global rates of birth-to-five child mortality are declining. (Press release on the forthcoming UNICEF State of the World's Child Report 2008)

--In the US, unborn child mortality from induced abortion in the US has dropped to its lowest rate since 1974. (Guttmacher Institute press release, January 17, 2008)

--This drop is apparently part of a bigger picture. According to an earlier Guttmacher report, "the number of induced abortions worldwide declined from nearly 46 million to under 42 million between 1995 and 2003." Hopefully there were fewer deaths and injuries of pregnant women, too.

It would be most unfortunate if these welcome stories became cause for complacency. The reasons for each of these declines need to be more fully understood and documented. They need to be made into amply funded action plans that refine or replace the ones in place now (if indeed they are in place now).

Better access to free or affordable reproductive health services, including but not limited to family planning, is one vital reason. The world's largest advocate and provider of reproductive health services is UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.

Smear campaigns from contraception opponents have persistently depicted UNFPA as a ruthless promoter of abortions, including coerced abortions. The truth is markedly different.

UNFPA is not perfect, nor does it have a perfect history. But now its abundant work saves and improves born and unborn lives throughout the globe.

Please express gratitude to UNFPA by visiting its How You Can Help page. For example, USD $9 will supply one couple with contraceptives for two years; $20 will cover the costs of safe birthing kits for women in war or disaster situations.

Whatever you do, you will help to make those thankfully falling death rates fall even faster.