500,000 women every year die, Sen. McCain...

[cynatnite]

from pregnancy and childbirth complications. You want to minimize it and dimiss it. :grr:

Addressing the annual high-level debate at United Nations Headquarters in New York, Jens Stoltenberg said it was clear that the world had not taken the issue of maternal mortality – the focus of one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – seriously.

“The fact that we have not made any significant progress at all in reducing the number of women who die in pregnancy or childbirth is appalling,” he told delegates. “There can only be one reason for this awful situation – and that is persistent neglect of women in a world dominated by men.”

Mr. Stoltenberg said “all this human tragedy is avoidable by simple means,” and a report issued last week by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) found that more than 500,000 women die unnecessarily every year because of complications from pregnancy or childbirth – nearly all of them in the developing world.

“Just think of all these millions of young girls and young women who know, and who fear and dread, that giving life may cause their death,” the Prime Minister said.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=28281&Cr=general+assembly&Cr1=debate

[Lorien]

1. Yep. A coworker's wife died in childbirth

a lot of people believe that it's rare, but it's not. :-(

[Manifestor_of_Light]

2. I was one of those people, but in the United States.

I had a baby in 1985 and would have died from having a too small pelvis for the baby's head to pass thru, if I had not had a C-Section. No doubt about it.

I am a small person and I had an 8 pound full term baby who was jammed in diagonally. There was no dropping (because the head was too big to fit down into the pelvis) and no dilation.

[AirmensMom]

4. Same here ...

only the baby was almost 9 1/2 pounds. We very nearly didn't make it.

[nam78_two]

3. Indeed -K&R.nt

[Uzybone]

5. Oh its just thier "health"

left wing groups use health to mean whatever they want.

How callous. Like Joan Walsh said to Tweety, I think this comment will haunt him for the rest of his career.

[FloridaJudy]

6. And many of those that survive

Are seriously damaged. Look up "obstetrical fistula" if you have a strong stomach. It's all but unheard of in developed countries, but a living nightmare for all too many third world women.