Asia News: Maternal deaths decline in Philippines without birth controls

Maternal deaths dropped 81% in the Philippines from 1980-2oo8, a study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation of the University of Washington reports, contradicting claims by abortion activists who have used outdated statistics to argue that the Philippines maternal death rate demonstrates the need for a liberalization of birth control laws. The Philippines, where abortion is illegal, did better in this regard than wealthy countries with liberal abortion laws such as Germany and Israel. The new data shows the Filipino Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) has dropped to four deaths per day, well below the 11 per day claimed by supporters of abortion. In the United States the MMR was 13.3 in 2006; the world average for developed regions in 2000 was 20 .