Towards Zero Preventable Child Deaths

A report from the United States Fund for UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, presents some very welcome news about already-born children's mortality. Since 1960, the global death rate of children under five has decreased by 60 percent.

In an email announcing the report, US Fund for UNICEF head Caryl Stern says this is reason to redouble systematic lifesaving efforts for the 25,000 children who are still lost worldwide every day. "These children are dying for reasons we can prevent. They do not have to die, but they do. I believe that number should be zero."

To support UNICEF's efforts "towards zero," please visit the US Fund's Donate by Program page.

In a post from January 23, 2008, this blog noted that both global child mortality and abortion rates were declining.

Could it be that measures which benefit already-born kids simultaneously benefit unborn children, and vice versa--contrary to the either/or, zero sum thinking of the US abortion debate and its exports?

And what if the approach of striving for zero preventable child deaths were applied more systematically to abortion and its root causes?

Incidentally, such an approach already meshes quite well with with global efforts to reduce maternal mortality.