New York City, N.Y., Sep 24, 2010 / 05:05 am
A new report by the United Nations has accepted lower revised estimates of global maternal deaths. The move follows years of criticism from pro-life groups, which claim the higher estimates were used to justify the legalization of abortion.
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) report “Trends in maternal mortality: 1990 to 2008” estimates that the annual maternal mortality rate is about 350,000 deaths and falling. Previously, the World Bank, the WHO and other U.N. agencies had set the figure at over 500,000, reports the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM).
A study published April 12 in The Lancet found that maternal deaths worldwide totaled 342,900. It blamed HIV/AIDS for about 60,000 of the deaths.
Dr. Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, said in an editorial accompanying the article that for the first time in a generation the study shows “persistent and welcome progress.”