Mr. Bush, This is Pro-Life?

We talk a lot on Daily Kos about reproductive rights, family planning and abortion, but seldom in the context of the Third World.  NYT Columnist Nicholas Kristof gives us a look at the reality some rural African women face.  Here is a reprint of the NYT column at truthout.org.

The Bush administration's policy against funding the UN Population Fund has real consequences for these women, according to Kristof:

Mr. Bush and other conservatives have blocked funds for the U.N. Population Fund because they're concerned about its involvement in China. They're right to be appalled by forced sterilizations and abortions in China, and they have the best of intentions. But they're wrong to blame the Population Fund, which has been pushing China to ease the coercion - and in any case the solution isn't to let African women die. (Two American women have started a wonderful grass-roots organization that seeks to make up for the Bush cuts with private donations; its website is www.34millionfriends.org.)

For just $42 a woman can receive a life or health saving caesarian section, but for these women, that is often too much:

Pregnant women die constantly here because they can't afford treatment costing just a few dollars. Sometimes the doctors and nurses reach into their own pockets to help a patient, but they can't do so every time.

    "It depends on the mood," Dr. Kayode said. "If the [staff] feel they can't pay out again, then you just wait and watch. And sometimes she dies."

    A few days earlier, a pregnant woman had arrived with a dangerously high blood pressure of 250 over 130; it was her 12th pregnancy. Dr. Kayode prescribed a medicine called Clonidine for the hypertension, but she did not have the $13 to buy it. Nor could she afford $42 for a Caesarean that she needed.

    During childbirth, right here in this hospital, she hemorrhaged and bled to death.

I can't vouch for the organization www.34millionfriends.org mentioned above, but read the article and consider helping if you can.  
  Footnote from their website:

The idea behind this project is to ask 34 million Americans to donate at least $1 and in turn, send a message to our government.