Sherry Chandler

Mother’s Day Report Card

Because I spent Mother’s Day afternoon with my own mother, I’m a bit late getting to this Save The Children report on best and worst places to be a mother:

Westport, Conn. (May 6, 2008) — Save the Children, a U.S.-based independent global humanitarian organization, today released its ninth annual Mothers’ Index that ranks the best — and worst — places to be a mother and a child. The Mother’s Index, highlighted in the organization’s State of the World’s Mothers 2008 report, compares the well-being of mothers and children in 146 countries, more than in any previous year.

Nordic countries sweep the top rankings of the best places to be a mother, while countries in sub-Saharan Africa dominate the bottom tier. Sweden tops the list, while Niger ranks last among countries surveyed. The United States places 27th this year, one slot down from last year’s ranking.

Read this whole report, which I found compliments of FrenchDoc posting at Corrente, and view the multimedia presentation. It will break your heart.

As for me, I have one question. If the people who want to do away with abortion rights, the ones whose travelling exhibits show screaming fetuses to college students, the ones who think a drip of sperm on a man’s leg is a pre-born baby, if those people really think every fetus is sacred, why is the United States 27^th on this list? And trending down?

Why, if every fetus is sacred, does the Bush administration cut off funding U.N. women’s health initiatives just to keep women from getting abortions? Why is this sort of thing tolerable:

…in Niger, a typical woman has less than three years of education and the life expectancy of a girl born today is only 45. Only 4 percent of Nigerian women use modern contraception, and 1 child in 4 never sees a fifth birthday. At this rate, every mother is likely to suffer the loss of a child during her lifetime.

Look at that. One child in 4, 25% of children, die before age 5. Life expectancy for women is 45.

1. Some Mother’s Day Follow-Up
2. James Lee Chandler (June 15, 1915 - December 28, 2006)
3. from “The Mother on the Other Side of the World”
4. Roe v. Wade
5. Forever Pre-pregnant

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