I found this report from the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute really interesting. In part, it says:
According to WHO, the country with the lowest maternal mortality rate in South America is Chile, which protects unborn life in its constitution. The country with the highest is Guyana, with a maternal mortality rate 30 times higher than in Chile. Guyana has allowed abortion without almost any restriction since in 1995. Ironically, one of two main justifications used in liberalizing Guyana’s law was to enhance the “attainment of safe motherhood” by eliminating deaths and complications associated with unsafe abortion….
Worldwide, the country with the lowest maternal death rate is Ireland, a nation that prohibits abortion and whose constitution explicitly protects the rights of the unborn.
Obviously arguments for and against legalised abortion are not limited to this issue, but I did find this really striking.
RSS - Posts
That’s interesting. I wonder how “maternal mortality” is defined, though. Does it include deaths of all mothers? Does it include women who die in childbirth? I’m just not sure of the meaning of the statistic without those details.
Yours in Christ,
James Snapp, Jr.
Yes – that’s a question I’m wondering too. It seems they’re using information from the World Health Organisation, so I guess it would be the WHO’s definition of maternal mortality.