International

Flanked by a hundred storks, SP Member of Parliament Ewout Irrgang promised to call the Dutch government to account for its cuts in spending on the global struggle against maternal mortality. The storks were assembled on Het Plein, the square in front of the Netherlands’ Parliament, by development aid NGO Simavi as a protest against maternal mortality throughout the world. 'This government pays lip service to the notion that the struggle against world-wide maternal mortality is a top priority,’ says Irrgang. ‘But they’re actually cutting tens of millions of euros from the budget for this important matter. When we come to debate the budget I’ll be calling Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Ben Knapen to account for this contradiction and asking him to reverse these cuts.'

Each and every year 350,000 women die in childbirth, while 215 million women in developing countries who want to use contraception have no access to it. The consequences are there for all to see: teenage pregnancies, illegal abortions, maternal death, sexual violence and explosive population growth. “The SP sees it as of great importance that the Netherlands should continue to make money available to address this,” says Irrgang. “It would be best if we reversed all of the cuts in spending for development cooperation. In any event we will do all we can to spare the fight against maternal death.”