Global maternal health programs deserve 'far more support' from U.S. government

Maternal health programs "deserve far more support" from the U.S. in part because the country knows "exactly what to do to bring down maternal mortality and morbidity," New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof writes in an opinion piece.

According to Kristof, "neither Democrats nor Republicans have ever shown great interest in maternal health," and President Bush earlier this month proposed reducing total spending for global maternal and child health programs to a "negligible" $346 million.

About 530,000 women die annually from pregnancy and childbirth complications, and for "every woman who dies in childbirth worldwide, another 20 are injured," Kristof writes, adding that "because the victims are born with three strikes against them -- they are poor, rural and female -- they are invisible and voiceless, receiving almost no help either from poor countries or from the developed world."

Kristof writes that Catherine Hamlin -- who runs the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to treat women with obstetric fistulas and other childbirth injuries -- and Edna Adan Ismail, who operates the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital in Somalia, deserve the Nobel Peace Prize "for showing the world how to turn the tide of maternal mortality and morbidity" (Kristof, New York Times, 2/25).