The following MCCL GO news release was issued today, Jan. 21, 2011.
A new report from Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life Global Outreach (MCCL GO) analyzes details concerning the maternal mortality rate, legal abortion and Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG 5) in South Africa. The full report is available at the MCCL GO website.
In recent weeks the South African government and leading health authorities have admitted that their country will not meet MDG 5, which calls for reducing the maternal mortality rate by 75 percent. Instead of a reduction, the latest statistics show that the maternal mortality rate has, in fact, doubled in South Africa.
The South African government legalized abortion on demand in 1997. At that time, abortion advocates made wildly exaggerated claims that legalized abortion would greatly reduce the maternal mortality rate. In fact, the effect of legalized abortion has been the exact opposite.
"Africa's greatest resource is its people," stated Scott Fischbach, Executive Director of MCCL GO. "The South African approach of legalizing abortion not only aborts a nation's future, it also contributes to a higher loss of life among its women."
The MCCL GO analysis reveals that South African health authorities have been successful in pushing abortion on the women of their country. It is estimated that in 1996 (the year prior to the legalization of abortion) approximately 1,600 abortions were performed across South Africa; by 2004 there were nearly 90,000 abortions performed. With this focus on abortion promotion, pre-natal and obstetric care — care that truly helps women and their babies — have not been made priorities.
"Countries on the African continent are being pressured by the U.S. Obama administration, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Marie Stopes International and the International Planned Parenthood Federation to legalize abortion," Fischbach observed. "These nations ought to take note of the situation in South Africa. It is only in the delivery of adequate health care to women that they will reduce maternal mortality rates — not by legalizing abortion."
MCCL GO is a pro-life global outreach program of the Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life Education Fund with one goal: to save as many innocent lives as possible from the destruction of abortion. Learn more at www.mccl-go.org.
