Liya Kebede Quotes
Every day we hear about the dangers of cancer, heart disease and AIDS. But how many of us realize that, in much of the world, the act of giving life to a child is still the biggest killer of women of child-bearing age?
Kebede, Liya. "Message from Liya Kebede, WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health." World Health Organization, 2005.
The argument she made is that a woman should not be required to risk her life if she does not want to. Other than military conscription, there is no other aspect of American law whereby the society forces a citizen to risk their life.
Mrs. Roosevelt made issues national by the use of her daily column which was a type of blog with newspapers. Here she focused on a major health problem. At the time, Mrs. Roosevelt saw this as a women’s issue which of course it was. Government spent large sums of money to minimize or prevent death of men in war, but almost nothing on the problem of women’s death in childbirth despite the fact that many more women were killed than men. Unfortunately, while not to the same degree or proportion, the problem is still with us. With our wonderful modern medicine, we have increased the lifespan of most Americans markedly, but there are still many women who receive no prenatal care or counseling with the negative consequence.
She was calling for universal legalization of abortion and addressing Catholic and Muslim representatives who were concerned about the morality of abortion.
Liya Kebede is an Ethiopian-born model, maternal health advocate, clothing designer, and actress. She has appeared on the cover of Vogue three times.
