A positive birth experience is not a luxury, but a necessity, said Hedieh Mehrtash, consultant for the Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research at the World Health Organization (WHO), at a panel during the Maternal Mental Health Technical Consultation hosted by the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership, in collaboration with WHO and the United Nations Population Fund. 

In the United States, approximately 10 to 15 percent of known pregnancies end in miscarriage. But this doesn’t capture the full picture. In reality, studies show that as many as half of all pregnancies may end in miscarriage, with the vast majority occurring before people realize they are pregnant. A miscarriage is defined as pregnancy loss before 20 weeks gestation. While some health conditions such as autoimmune disorders, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and diabetes can exacerbate the risk of having a miscarriage, the exact causes of pregnancy loss are largely unknown.

Whether marginalized populations, such as adolescents, LGBTQ+ people, migrant workers, and sex workers are included in health services can be a “litmus test” of our progress towards universal health coverage (UHC), said Sivananthi Thanenthiran, Executive Director of Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW). Thanenthiran spoke at a recent Wilson Center event with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research about the importance of engaging stakeholders in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) to achieve UHC for all. In SRH services, the most marginalized and most vulnerable populations are often left out, she said. When engaging stakeholders, representatives from these groups must be included to ensure equity in healthcare services.

Pride month 2021 is underway, with parades, celebrations, and advocacy movements all over the world. Given the month’s celebratory nature—along with the increasing acceptance of and recent victories for LGBTQ+ * (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, and others) communities in some countries—it might be easy to assume that most lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals are “out.” However, according to a study by the Yale School of Public Health, this is far from the case. The vast majority of lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals remain in the closet, concealing their sexual orientation from “all or most” people in their lives.

In June 1969, the Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan served as a critical tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. Each June, communities around the world celebrate Pride Month to honor this struggle and continue fighting for a more equal future. More than 50 years after Stonewall, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer or Questioning (LGBTQ+)* people in the United States struggle to access culturally competent and respectful sexual and reproductive health care.

“From birth, from almost from cradle to grave, girls have been seen as some sort of baggage,” said Shamsa Suleiman, Project Management Specialist for Gender and Youth at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Tanzania. Suleiman spoke at a recent Wilson Center event with USAID MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership about balancing power dynamics to achieve equity for all women and children in maternal, child, and adolescent health, and family planning. Home should be a safe space, said Suleiman. But for many girls, it no longer is. To escape the poverty and pressures at home, including early marriage and other forms of gender-based violence, some girls leave, said Suleiman. “Girls are trying to escape the safe spaces.”