3. Maternal Mortality
• Maternal mortality refers to the death
of a woman while pregnant or within
forty-two days of termination of
pregnancy from any cause related to or
aggravated by the pregnancy or its
management. (Burns 43)
• The maternal mortality ratio in
developing regions is still 14 times
higher than in the developed regions.
(UN.org)
4. Maternal Mortality
• On average 536,000 women die per
year during pregnancy or child birth.
• 99% of these deaths comes from
developing countries alone.
• Almost all deaths are a result of poor
resources.
• Most of these deaths could be
prevented
5. Maternal Mortality
• Goal 5 of the United Nations Millennium
Development Goals puts into action for a 75
percent reduction in maternal mortality between
1990 and 2015
• As of right now maternal mortality has only fallen
by 45 percent (UN.ORG)
• According to the United Nations Population
Fund, more than 80 percent of maternal deaths
arise from five direct causes: hemorrhage, sepsis
(systemic infection), unsafe abortion, obstructed
labor, or toxemia (hypertensive disease brought on
by pregnancy) (Burns 43)
6. Works Cited
Burn, Shawn Meghan. Women across Cultures: A Global Perspective. Third
ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Print.
"United Nations Millennium Development Goals" United Nations,
<http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/maternal.shtml>.
8. Contraception • Reliable and safe
contraceptives are essential to
women's health and are an
important reproductive
right(Burn 49).
• An estimated 222 million
women in developing
countries would like to delay or
stop childbearing but are not
using any method of
contraception (Family Planning).
• Reproductive choice is limited
due to many factors (Burn 49).
9. Contraception
• Women have poor quality of healthcare services or
limited access.
• Lack if insurance coverage or money to pay, lack of
facilities, or access due to geography.
•Cultural or religious opposition or fear of side-effects stops
women from using contraception
(Burn 49)
10. Contraception
• Often times a women's partner determines whether and
what contraception is used (Burn 49).
• Intersectionality is important when considering
contraceptive methods-the method that is best for one
women may not be the best for another (Burn 49).
• The Advantages and disadvantages of a method vary
cross-culturally because culture influences the
tolerability of side effects and because the danger of a
reproductive technology depends on information and
medical care availability (Burn 49).
11. Contraception
• Government limits reproductive choice. Governments fund sex education
and legalize certain contraceptives and ban others. They affect options by
regulating contraceptives as pharmaceuticals and through government family
planning programs with limited services adoptions that create racial and class
disparities in reproductive health (Burn 54).
• Government policies such as pronatalist polices negatively effect women's
reproductive health; pronatalist policies reduce or ban contraception and
abortion and provide benefit's based on family size (Burn 54).
12. Contraception
• Men often decide if a women can use contraception or not. Women's bodies are
seen as property of the husband
• Men fear that contraception will lead to promiscuity. Many cultures believe that if a
women could enjoy sexual relations and could prevent pregnancy, then sexual
morality and family security would be jeopardized.
• Local availability of different birth control technologies may depend on
international policies and economics of other countries.
• Religious groups often oppose the use of contraception.
• (Burn 54-58)
13. Works Cited
Burn, Shawn Meghan. Women across Cultures: A Global Perspective. Third
ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Print.
"Family Planning." WHO. World Heath Organization, May 2013. Web. 20
Oct. 2014. <http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs351/en/>.
15. Abortion
• Many women's activists believe that the availability of safe and legal abortion is an
important reproductive rights that is critical to women's health (Burn 52).
• An estimated 42 million pregnancies end in abortion (Burn 52).
• In Developed regions, nearly all abortions are safe, whereas in developing countries
more than half are unsafe (Burn 52).
• An estimated 68,000 women die each year as a result of unsafe abortion, 5 million
are hospitalized, millions suffer from other complications (Burn 52).
• Approximately 220,000 children lose their mothers from abortion-related deaths
(Burn 52).
16. Abortion
• Close to 40 % of countries permit induced abortion without restriction as to
reason.
• 21% of countries allow abortion on economic grounds.
• 10% of countries allow for abortion due to mental health reasons
• 26% of countries prohibit it or allow it only to save the life of the mother
• Religious organizations usually strongly oppose abortion.
• In many countries a married women must have her husband's consent for an
abortion.
• (Burn 52).
18. Women's Rights as Human rights
• Violence against women is considered one of the first issues on the women's
rights agenda to be fluidly incorporated into human rights
• The slogan "Women's Rights are Human Rights" was first used at the UN
World Conference on Human Rights in 1993 in Vienna
• This conference brought recognition to rape, sexual slavery, and all forms of
sexual harassment and exploitation as human rights
19. Women's Rights as Human Rights
• Sexual rights are part of universal human rights, such as the right to privacy,
the right to security of the person, and the right to be free from torture and
from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. (Burn, 71).
• Many women lack sexual rights: rape, sexual coercion, and sex trafficking are
all a denial of a person's right to privacy, security, and right to be free from
torture and degrading treatment. (Burn, 71).
20. Women's Rights as Human Rights
• It was not until the 1990s that sexual rights were viewed as human rights
• In 2002, the World Health Organization created a working definition of
sexual rights that did not specifically include sexual orientation, but it did say
women had the right to "choice of sexual partner."
• Sexual rights require a commitment to negative rights such as protection
from sexuality-related harm including violence and abuse of a physical,
verbal, psychological, and sexual nature because of gender (Burn, 72).
21. Women's Rights as Human Rights
• In 2008 at the General Assembly of the United Nations, 66 countries from 5
continents agreed to a statement that international human rights protections
include sexual orientation and gender identity (Burns, 72).
22. Work Cited
• Burn, Shawn Meghan. Women Across Cultures: A Global Perspective. Third Ed.
New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Print.
• "Women's Rights as Human Rights." United Human Rights Council, October
2010. Web. 30 Oct. 2014. <www.unitedhumanrights.org/2012/12/womens-rights-
as-human-rights>
