More Than Two Women Die Every Day From Pregnancy-Related Causes

If the United States is spending more money on health care than any other country on Earth, where exactly is that cash going to? Certainly not to combating maternal mortality, given that women in America are more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than expectant mothers in some 40 other countries.

Being pregnant here is five times more dangerous than in Greece, four times riskier than in Germany, and three times more likely to kill you than in Spain. As Amnesty International finds in its well-named recent report, Deadly Delivery, much of this is due to disparities in access to maternal health care services, including family planning.

To fight these high rate of death and "near-misses," Amnesty International suggests making certain that access to good quality health care services are available to all without discrimination based on "gender, race, ethnicity, age, indigenous status, immigration status or ability to pay." Alicia Ely Yamin writes on our Human Rights blog, "Amnesty’s report rightly asserts that this is not just a public health scandal; it reflects widespread violations of women’s human rights, including the right to life, the right to freedom from discrimination, and the right to the highest attainable standard of health."

Amnesty International also recommends an Office of Civil Rights investigation into potentially discriminatory polices and practices, the establishment of maternal mortality review committees in states that currently lack one, the collection of better data on maternal deaths and complications, and the creation of an Office on Maternal Health by the federal government.

And, you know, we could actually get health reform passed. That would help a lot, too.

Photo credit: christysherrer