In Defense of the Millennium Development Goals

With respect to Fr. Araujo, I must disagree with his claim that the Millennium Development goals have been corrupted or compromised based on the evidence he cites.  The one goal he appears concerned with (there are eight goals, including reducing poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education and ensuring environmental sustainability) is the fifth goal: "improving maternal health."  He raises a concern with the discussion of the achievement of that goal in the 2007 MDG report (which can be accessed here), in particular with a passage that suggests that the "vast majority of maternal deaths and disabilities could be prevented through appropriate reproductive health services before, during and after pregnancy, and through life-saving interventions should complications arise."   However, the bulk of what is discussed immediately following that language has to do with the need for "skilled health personnel (doctors, nurses, midwives) who are trained to detect problems early" and who can provide pregnant women with obstretric care and with disparties in antenatal care.  It is true that the report also says that reducing unwanted pregnancies could avert a significant number of maternal deaths, including those resulting from unsafe abortions (a claim that seems fairly obvious) and talks about "an unmet need for family planning."  In my view, neither the text nor the context of this section of the report seems to me fairly characterized as evidence that "the MDGs have become a pawn for those interest groups that have been laboring for a universal right to abortion."