Women around the world have had to struggle for decades, for centuries, to achieve equal rights and to achieve the human rights every man and woman deserves. And while the struggle has resulted in many positive steps forward, there are still areas where women are considered less-than their male counterparts.

Their lives are considered less important. Why else would the world allow over 560,000 women to die in pregnancy and childbirth every year? I often think, “If it were men who got pregnant, men who laid on steel delivery tables every day, who bled and hemorrhaged and died… would governments be standing idly by?”

The truth is: maternal health is a human right. The right of all women to quality health care must be ensured to prevent the deluge of avoidable maternal deaths and injuries that happen every day.

Maternal health care must be available, accessible, and of high quality. When countries fail to provide such care, it is a violation of women’s rights to life, health, equality, and non-discrimination.

Women also have a right to make informed and voluntary reproductive health decisions based on accurate information; to prevent unintended pregnancies; to be free from gender-based discrimination and violence; to have access to HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment, and care; and to participate in the planning and implementation of polices that make pregnancy and childbirth safer. All women are entitled to the care they need to survive pregnancy and childbirth. Yet huge disparities exist between the rich and poor.

In Canada, where education, family planning, and health care services are widely available to all, one out of 11,000 women dies from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. In Niger, where poverty and a shattered health care system are combined with a high fertility rate, pregnancy-related causes will kill one of every seven women. Is this fair? Is this right?

Governments have an obligation to respect, protect, and fulfill women’s health. They have an obligation to take action to prevent maternal deaths. Yet too many governments are doing too little to save the lives of women and mothers.

It’s time to put these governing bodies on notice that we will not watch silently as women die and their rights are consistently violated. Download a copy of the Women Deliver advocacy tool, “Focus on 5: Women’s Health and the MDGs,” and join us in the fight for safe pregnancies and childbirths around the world. Join us in the fight for women’s rights.

“Ask for what you want. Take what you get. Then, use what you’ve got to get what you want.”

This is what Dr. Fred Sai said about international development at a global conference last week, the first time I heard him speak. It was a testament to his genius – simple, pragmatic advice that shoots to the core of global advocacy. These words have become my new mantra – something to repeat when I’m feeling frustrated, and something to repeat when I feel I’ve come up short in getting what is really needed to stop maternal deaths worldwide.

Dr. Sai has been a lifelong advocate for women’s health. He understands that addressing the problems of poverty means addressing women’s needs and rights worldwide, from the family level to international agreements. Not only does he understand this, he is willing to fight for it. While chairing the Main Committee of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994, he made sure that the voices of impoverished women, usually ignored, were heard clearing in Cairo.

Under Dr. Sai’s skillful and witty direction, the 179 governments at that historic gathering committed themselves to a Programme of Action that put meeting women’s needs at the center of any successful economic development policy. The Cairo Consensus has shaped global debate and national policies on women, development, and poverty alleviation ever since.

But serious anti-poverty work generates serious opposition from entrenched interests. Dr. Sai remained a leader in defending ICPD principles when they were under attack at milestone international re-evaluation conferences in 1999 and 2004: women’s equality, comprehensive sex education, and funding for reproductive health care, including family planning. He helped galvanize dispirited NGOs to fight for these principles, and as chair of the Women Deliver conference in London in 2007 he helped win new resources and political commitment for women from government ministers of 115 countries.

For all these achievements, Dr. Sai has received many honorary degrees and prizes from the reproductive health community, including the United Nations Population Award in 1993. But the Guardian Achievements in International Development Award would be a long-overdue recognition from the larger field of economic development. It would also acknowledge Dr. Sai’s pioneering role in bringing that community to recognize the centrality of women to alleviating the problem of global poverty.

In short, few people have done more for women worldwide than Dr. Fred Sai. I urge you to visit the Guardian website, and VOTE FOR FRED before September 30th! A vote for Fred means a vote for women’s health and rights worldwide.

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