University of Botswana Law Journal - PULP

THE RIGHT TO MATERNAL HEALTH CARE 79
would be damaging. My view is that actually these numbers help
their cause, not hinder it. 158
Dr. Horton argued that the new data should encourage the world’s
politicians to spend more on “pregnancy-related health matters,” as the data
dispels the belief that statistics have been stuck on one place for decades,
instead showing that money allocated to women’s health is actually
accomplishing something. 159 The debate over the publication of the Lancet
article not only demonstrates how critical international cooperation is in
capacity building (as advocates for maternal health care argue, there is a dire
need for international aid to help states meet their duty to provide maternal
health care), but also shows that the right to maternal health care continues to
be defined as a human right in the international context. A report issued
concurrently with the Lancet article by the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn
and Child Health, specified the improvements that are saving the lives of
women around the world and causing the numbers of maternal death to
decrease:
For instance, India pays women to get prenatal care and skilled care
for delivery. Nepal provides home visits for family planning.
Malawi is training nonphysicians to perform emergency Caesarean
sections. Brazil has set up a health system that provides free primary
care and skilled attendance at birth for all. 160
Whether or not the Lancet findings will reduce state commitments to
capacity building for providing maternal health care, the findings do also
show that recognizing the right to maternal health care as a human right is
working in preventing maternal mortality around the world.
I agree with Sadasivam’s assertion that “even a broad-based human
rights approach does not go to a crucial aspect of the problem: the failure of
public health systems in developing countries,” but I have attempted to assert
that the formal articulations of the right to maternal health care international
law, which are being advanced through the development of customary
international law and through individual lawsuits, provide a foundation from
which advocates for maternal health care can advance their goals. 161
Asserting that the right to maternal health care is a human right is a way to
develop policy alternatives, both in the international law and “extra-legal”
realms. As Alicia Yamin, former Director of Research and Investigations at
Physicians for Human Rights, has stated:
158 Id.
159 Id.
160 Id.
161 See supra note 6.