Joint statement on Canada’s Maternal/Child Health Initiative
Maternal health is about more than saving the lives of women and children. It’s about fundamental human rights: the right of a woman to control her sexual health; the right of women and men to access sex education and contraception; and the right of women to plan and space childbirths.
Reproductive rights will only be achieved when inequalities between women and men are overcome. Only then will we end the injustice of one thousand women dying each day due to pregnancy-related causes. In most of the world, we’re far from securing reproductive rights. 350,000 women die each year in pregnancy or childbirth – that’s one every minute. Nearly 15 per cent of these deaths – one every eight minutes – is a result of unsafe abortion. 137 million women in developing countries who say they do not want to have a child at this time have no access to modern methods of contraception. It’s time we address these facts. It’s time world leaders recognize their responsibility to protect women’s reproductive rights.
We are women from across Canada, standing in solidarity with women and men around the world, to demand the G8’s special initiative on maternal and child health:
• recognizes gender inequality as one of the key factors affecting women’s health
• supports concrete actions to secure equality, including action to end violence against women
• commits to advancing the reproductive health and rights of all
• ensures universal access to comprehensive healthcare, with special attention to expectant mothers
• is financed with new, additional funds, not repackaged money taken from other crucial aid commitments.
We implore the G8 to keep its promises to the world’s poor, ensuring the maternal health initiative protects women’s rights and advances gender justice.
Signed,
Jessica Yee
Executive Director, Native Youth Sexual Health Network
Cindy Blackstock
PhD, First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada
Lilian Allen
Dub Poet & Cultural Strategist
Cara Banks
Chair of the Prairie Lily Feminist Society
Louise Binder
Chair, Canadian Treatment Action Council
Alison Brewin
Executive Director, West Coast LEAF
Norah Currie
Writer, Activist
Zahra Dhanani
Legal Director, Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children (METRAC)
Martha Friendly
Executive Director, Childcare Resource and Research Unit
Liyu Guo
Anti-Poverty Activist
Margaret Hancock
Executive Director, Family Service Toronto
Ashika Iqbal
Student Activist, Memorial University
Audrey M. Johnson
Executive Director, Women’s Legal Education & Action Fund (LEAF) National Office
Donna S. Lero,
Ph.D. Jarislowsky Chair in Families and Work Centre for Families, Work & Well-Being, University of Guelph
Michele Landsberg
Officer of the Order of Canada (OC)
Monica Lysack
Education Consultant and Activist
Jacquie Maund
Anti-poverty activist
Ann McCrorie
Chair of the Early Learning Childcare Coalition of Saskatchewan
Sheelah McLean
PhD Candidate (Anti-Racist Anti-Oppressive Education), University of Saskatchewan
Peggy Nash
Senior Representative, Canadian Auto Workers Union
Lana Payne
President Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour
Kim Phuc Phan Thi
Founder of the Kim Foundation International
Susan Prentice
Professor of Sociology, University of Manitoba
Angela Robertson
Anti-Poverty Feminist Activist
Linda Ross
President/CEO Provincial Advisory Council on the Status of Women (Nfld and Labrador)
Laurel Rothman
Grandmother & anti-child poverty activist
Angela Schira
Secretary-Treasurer, BC Federation of Labour
Paulette Senior
Executive Director, YWCA
Dr. Priscilla Settee
Associate Professor, Department of Native Studies, University of Saskatchewan
Jane Staschuk
Director, Women’s Programs, Education & Training, BC Federation of Labour
Camille Stengel
University of Victoria Graduate Student
Judi Richards
Musician and Oxfam Quebec Ambassador
Wangari Tharao
Programs & Research Manager, Women’s Health in Women’s Hands
Laure Waridel
Sociologist and Author
Nettie Wiebe
Former President, National Farmers Union
Armine Yalnizyan
Economist
Alexa Conradi
President, Quebec Women’s Federation
