News from the Religious Institute:

WESTPORT, CT, September 15, 2010 – The Religious Institute today issued a call to the nation’s religious leaders to raise a prophetic voice about maternal mortality worldwide and promote universal access to reproductive health services.

The Open Letter to Religious Leaders on Maternal Mortality and Reproductive Justice, developed by a group of clergy, theologians and ethicists recognizes that “access to sexual and reproductive health services is a matter of life and death.”  Every ninety seconds, somewhere in the world a woman dies from complications of pregnancy and childbirth.  The Open Letter declares, “No woman should lose her life to create a new one.”  All women and men must have access to a full range of reproductive health services, including contraception, prenatal care, and safe abortion and post-abortion care.

The Open Letter calls on religious leaders to:

• Educate themselves and their faith communities about the crisis of maternal mortality.
• Publicly advocate for increased support for maternal health and reproductive health services, domestically and globally.
• Work within their traditions to make the reduction of preventable maternal mortality a social justice issue.

“As the United Nations General Assembly gathers in New York on September 20-22nd to discuss the status of the Millennium Development Goals, it is essential to recognize that people of all faiths support that the sacredness of life is best upheld when women and men create life intentionally and women are able to have healthy pregnancies and childbirths,” said the Rev. Debra W. Haffner, Executive Director of the Religious Institute.  “Surely it is common ground for people of faith to work to create a world where no woman will die giving birth to the next generation.”

Click here to read the letter.