CBHD’s purpose is to explore “the nexus of biomedicine, biotechnology, and our common humanity.” Yet in spite of the rapid pace of medical advancement in our own country, millions of women around the world die in childbirth; live with preventable, painful, and shameful gynecological conditions; are exploited for their wombs or their eggs; or are sold into slavery that assaults the dignity of the body and soul. In the face of such injustice, the Center is exploring an initiative in global women’s health to bring the resources and convening power of CBHD to bear on this enormous, seemingly intractable problem.
The public health challenges faced by women in the developing world are multi-faceted, and effective interventions will require partnerships among diverse institutions, including churches, non-governmental organizations, and governments. As a first step in identifying potential partners in the global women’s health initiative, the Center sponsored two events in Washington, D.C., in the summer of 2011. Both events featured a presentation by Dr. Monique Chireau, an assistant professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Duke University Medical Center who focuses her research on women’s public health issues, both domestic and international. Dr. Chireau has been on the frontlines of tackling many of the controversies in women’s health, including the supposed role of “unsafe abortion” in maternal mortality around the world. Dr. Chireau’s rigorous research and analytical methods have given credibility to her pro-life message, delivered in various secular contexts, including the United Nations and the World Health Organization.
The first event, a Congressional briefing, was held on Capitol Hill with about fifty Congressional staff in attendance. Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights of the House Foreign Affairs committee, served as our honorary co-host. The second event, a dinner consultation, included individuals representing several like-minded, non-profit organizations to begin a discussion on the scope of the problems facing women around the world.
At both events, Dr. Chireau presented data describing current trends in women’s health around the world, highlighting issues such as maternal mortality, adolescent pregnancy, and obstetric fistula. As Dr. Chireau explained, the language of reproductive health and rights has been “appropriated and usually is code for healthcare and education with mandatory inclusion of abortion (often under the guise of ‘family planning’).” She argued,
We can choose to revise this terminology, however, to say that reproductive health is a state of freedom from destructive activities and practices that compromise a woman’s health, well-being and dignity (such as abortion). Reproductive health includes the provision of services and knowledge that promote women’s health, dignity and well being as well as that of her family.[1]
Dr. Chireau noted that although many faith-based and secular organizations have increasingly recognized the role of women’s health in combating poverty, development strategies must also focus on strengthening the family since “no development can be sustainable where it contributes to the breakdown of the family.”
Dr. Chireau also discussed recent, controversial data identifying the major contributing factors to maternal mortality, drawing extensively from a study led by Margaret Hogan,[2] which used new statistical methods to model rates of maternal mortality in 181 countries around the world. The results of this study showed that in many parts of the world, maternal mortality is declining due to increasing education, increased income, decreasing fertility rates, and improved access to birth care. Importantly, the data showed no correlation between access to abortion and maternal mortality rates. In fact, some of the countries which showed the sharpest decreases in maternal mortality over the last several years are countries with extremely restrictive abortion laws.
It is our hope that the unique perspective of The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity will result in productive collaborations between researchers, public health professionals, development organizations, policymakers, and the church, bringing our unique focus on rigorous research and thoughtful, Christian deliberation to bear on this most basic problem affecting the human dignity of millions of women around the world.
[1] The PowerPoint slides of Dr. Chireau’s presentation are available on our website at: https://cbhd.org/event/womens-reproductive-health-as-gender.
[2] World Health Organization, “Maternal Mortality for 181 Countries, 1980-2008: A Systematic Analysis of Progress towards Millennium Development Goal 5,” http://www.who.int/pmnch/topics/maternal/20100402_ihmearticle.pdf (accessed August 16, 2011).