Chris Smith: “Mr. Speaker, reducing maternal and child mortality and providing quality health care and nutrition to ensure the…”

“Mr. Speaker, reducing maternal and child mortality and providing quality health care and nutrition to ensure the well-being of both mother and baby here and abroad, has been a top legislative priority for me throughout my 28 years as a Member of Congress. All loss of life is tragic, especially when it is preventable. When a mother dies, the loss, the heartache is compounded by the deleterious impact on her children, on families and on the community. As H. Res. 1022 points out, each year, more than a million children are left motherless and, as a consequence, are vulnerable. In many places, young girls are pulled from school and required to fill their lost mother's role in the home, cutting short their abilities to pursue an education. And the evidence suggests that newborns whose mothers die of any cause are 3 times to 10 times more likely to die within the first 2 years than those whose mothers survive. What is most unfortunate and thereby, should be unacceptable, is the fact that most maternal deaths are avoidable.”