In No Uncertain Terms: Secretary Clinton's Speech on Women's Reproductive Health
The fact that the US State Department celebration of the 15th anniversary of the landmark International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) was delayed twice did not in any way dampen the enthusiasm of the approximately 100 guests gathered in the ornate Ben Franklin room on January 8, 2010. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton marked the occasion with a major address on international family planning and development. 
As a long-time advocate for international family planning and a supporter of the 1994 Cairo ICPD, NCJW was included at this ceremony along with diplomats, government officials, and a host of foundations and organizations. Like NCJW, many of the groups and leaders in the room were veterans of many decades of struggle around family planning — seeking adequate attention and funding from the US, fighting restrictions like the global gag rule which undermined family planning and women’s health abroad, and working to educate decision makers in our country and abroad about the critical connection between women’s reproductive health and a host of global issues.
In strong and unequivocal language, Secretary Clinton eloquently laid out the Obama administration’s commitment to the global women’s reproductive health. She spoke of the progress since the Cairo meeting as well as the “vast inequities” that remain. It was sobering to be reminded that “one woman dies every minute of every day in pregnancy and childbirth, and for every woman who dies, another 20 suffer from injury, infection, or disease every minute.”
It was gratifying to hear her say that the US is integrating women’s health issues as key elements of foreign policy and in the global health and food security initiatives. After years of inattention to family planning or, worse, destructive policies that crippled effective family planning programs abroad through denial of funding or imposition of ideologically driven restrictions — Secretary Clinton’s speech was a much-needed, long wished-for breath of fresh air!
As Hillary Clinton said: “…if we believe that human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights, then we cannot accept the ongoing marginalization of half the world’s population. We cannot accept it morally, politically, socially, or economically.”
Now we awe specifics of the policies that will move this important agenda forward. NCJW will surely play a role in making this global social change.
State Department photo by Michael Gross.
It's heartening to know Obama cares about the reproductive health of women in other countries. Let's hope he cares enough about women in the U.S. to advocate for reproductive coverage in the health care reform bill.
It is gratifying to know Secretary Clinton will continue to support women's health rights internationally. So much of the world's problems occur because women are burdened with child with unplanned pregnancies and medieval ideas about family planning. She is a valued ally.
