The following news release was issued yesterday, Feb. 22, by MCCL GO.
On the 26th anniversary of legalized abortion in Ghana, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life Global Outreach (MCCL GO) has released a new report that analyzes the maternal mortality rate, legal abortion and Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG 5) in Ghana. The full report is available at the MCCL GO website.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and leading health authorities have concluded that Ghana will not meet MDG 5, which calls for reducing the maternal mortality rate by 75 percent. Instead of a significant reduction, the latest statistics have health officials declaring it a "national emergency."
The 2007 Ghana Maternal Health Survey estimates a maternal mortality rate of 580 deaths per 100,000 live births. Other estimates suggest an increase from a rate of 214 in 1993 to 560 in 2007.
On Feb. 22, 1985, the Ghanaian government broadly legalized abortion. The policy has not bettered the health of the Ghanaian people. Indeed, 26 years after abortion was legalized, "Improving maternal health and reducing maternal and neonatal mortality is the Ministry of Health's first priority," explains WHO.
"Africa's greatest resource is its people," stated Scott Fischbach, Executive Director of MCCL GO. "Ghana's approach of legalizing abortion not only aborts a nation's future, it also contributes to a great loss of life among its women."
The MCCL GO analysis reveals Ghana's health authorities have been pushing abortion on the women of their country. In 2003 the Ghana Health Service developed a strategic plan for the provision of abortion with the goal of reducing maternal deaths; in 2006 that plan was fully implemented. Yet more than four years after the 2006 guidelines were adopted, DailyGuideGhana.com reported, "The country's stringent efforts at reducing [the] maternal mortality rate seem to be failing miserably, as reports indicate that the rate is soaring across the country."
This misguided focus on abortion promotion has diverted attention and resources from actually improving women's health through pre-natal and obstetric care—care that truly helps women and their babies.
"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 Ghana. It is only in the delivery of adequate health care to women that they will reduce maternal mortality rates—not by legalizing and promoting 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.
