Around the world, myriad causes make high infant mortality rates a sad reality. A recent article points out that, according to the World Health Organization, five children die every minute in developing countries from malaria or diarrhea due to the lack of clean water. In 2019, an estimated 5.2 million children (mostly under the age of 5) died from preventable and treatable causes. Most of those deaths are newborns under 28 days. But rather than dealing with the underlying issues – lack of clean drinking water, lack of nourishing food, lack of adequate shelter, lack of education – governments instead draw attention to “reproductive rights.” It’s easier to kill children before birth than meet their needs after.
And developed countries lead the way in telling developing countries that easy access to abortion is something they want and need to address their problems.
As the high abortion rate in Canada indicates (approximately 1 in 4 pregnancies, close to 100,000 babies per year), Canadians have already bought what they are selling. And it’s always easier to sell something you’ve tried out and believe worked for you – you actually feel like you are doing others a service by sharing your knowledge.
Yes, it’s easier to kill a child right away than deal with all the needs it will certainly have once born. But is meeting societal challenges meant to be easy? Governments are too busy keeping up with the political zeitgeist to keep up with the pressing physical needs of its most vulnerable. When we allow a hyper focus on current political issues, we let slide the needs that are as old as time – food, water, shelter, stable families and a sense of belonging.
Parents around the world want a safe place for their children to be born and grow up. In some countries, the womb may be the safest place those children ever know. But there are those who would like to take even that away.