Towards reproductive health for all?

This chapter differs from others in this part of the book in that it focuses on the broad area of reproductive health, rather than the specific Millennium Development Goal of reducing maternal mortality. This focus reflects two concerns. First, as noted in Chapter 3, data on maternal mortality are amongst the most difficult to pin down in terms of obtaining reliable information with which to analyse global or even country-specific trends. This is reflected in Vandemoortele’s discussion of trends on maternal mortality in Chapter 6, where he concludes on the basis of the limited available data that the goal of a three-quarters reduction in maternal mortality is unlikely to be met by 2015.