CHAPEL HILL -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is about to focus her attention on an issue that is no less vital to the global future than those that claim most of her time in her current role, such as climate change, the Middle East and other issues of war and peace. She will take time to mark the 15th anniversary of a landmark world conference in Cairo in 1994 that established governments' obligations to support women's reproductive health and rights.
As first lady at that time, she carried her personal commitment on these issues forward to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Universal access to reproductive health was later recognized as a key target in the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. More and more, women's ability to manage their childbearing is understood as fundamental to themselves, their families and the future of the planet.
Despite this notable progress at the international level, the clock was turned back on U.S. policy for eight years during the Bush administration. Since President Barack Obama took office in January, he has set a new course. Among other things, he supported increased funding for international family planning, repealed the global gag rule that had denied foreign aid to reproductive health organizations overseas and restored U.S. funding to the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA).
The new administration faces many urgent issues, but few are more critical or touch more people than the need to ensure that sisters, daughters, mothers and wives around the world all enjoy basic reproductive health and rights. Every year, approximately 500,000 women die from pregnancy, placing the lives of their surviving children at risk as well. According to the Guttmacher Institute, nearly 215 million women would like to prevent pregnancy but lack access to effective contraception.
Without preventive services, nearly 20 million women will have unsafe abortions in the coming year; related complications will injure several million women and kill nearly 70,000. With preventive services so they can plan their families, women are healthier, their children are healthier and their communities prosper.
Despite many challenges, solutions are within reach and affordable, and sustained U.S. leadership is critical. Success is possible only if our policies are driven by evidence and meet the real needs of women and their families. Currently, these policies and the good intentions of the Obama administration are hampered by harmful restrictions, including the ban on foreign aid for abortion known as the Helms amendment. Moreover, the global gag rule is at risk of being reinstated if President Obama loses the next election.
Just last week, House and Senate conferees decided not to include an amendment that would have permanently repealed the global gag rule - barring future administrations from playing politics with women's lives by reinstituting the harmful policy whenever they see fit. Without a permanent repeal, the reproductive health and rights of the world's most vulnerable women will be threatened again.
Equally essential is to end the ban on U.S. funding abroad for legal abortion care that discriminates against poor women. The Helms amendment, attached to foreign-assistance legislation over 35 years ago, prohibits use of U.S. funds for abortion "as a method of family planning." Even without overturning the ban, the United States could do much more to support safe abortion care in cases of rape, incest or pregnancy that threatens a woman's life or health, including training and equipping health workers to provide safe abortions in these circumstances. Such assistance would help to reduce substantially complications of unsafe abortions.
As the world marks the anniversaries of the historic United Nations conferences that produced such important advances for women, we look to Clinton to use her political skills to build support for maintaining these advances both at home and abroad. Nothing could be more fundamental to long-term global peace and prosperity.
Elizabeth Maguire is president and CEO of Ipas, a nonprofit international women's health organization. She directed the U.S. government's international family planning assistance program from 1993 to 1999.
