As Mother's Day is celebrated around the world, it is important to reflect on some of the complications of pregnancy and childbirth faced by millions of women worldwide without access to basic family planning services.

From an email from WEDO and CHANGE:

This Mother's Day, ask Congress to reverse cuts to and increase funding for international voluntary family planning programs.

Millions of women suffer grave health risks or lose their lives because they don't have access to the information and tools they need to plan the number and spacing of their children or because they don't have access to prenatal care.

• Every year, 525,000 women die from causes related to complications of pregnancy and childbirth.
• Every year, an additional 8 million women suffer serious health consequences from pregnancy and childbirth.

This Mother's Day stand up for the right of women to have safe, healthy, planned pregnancies. Family planning programs provide a critical foundation for the health of women, families, and children.

• Providing access to modern contraception in less developed countries could prevent 1.4 million infant deaths and 142,000 maternal deaths annually.
• In the developing world, the use of modern contraceptives reduces unintended pregnancies by 85%, thereby reducing significantly the probability that a woman will have an abortion.
• Birth spacing of at least 36 months is associated with the lowest mortality risk for infants and children under five years of age.

This year President Bush requested devastating cuts to international voluntary family planning programs (despite having stated that family planning programs are one of the best ways to prevent abortion). These cuts put the lives of even more women and children on the line. This month Congress will decide how much money it will spend on each international issue. We need to make sure that they restore the money cut by President Bush from international voluntary family planning and increase funding over time so as to begin to meet the unmet global need.

TAKE ACTION TODAY! Click here to get a call-in script and the phone number for your Representative to ask him or her to co-sponsor H.R. 4188, the Focus on Family Health Worldwide Act. You can also send your Representative an email by following this link.