Access to Maternal Health Services from a Human Rights Perspective

High rates of preventable mortality and morbidity are cause for great concern worldwide. This situation is not unknown in the Americas. Maternal mortality continues to be a serious human rights problem with dramatic effects on women throughout the world and in the region, and with repercussions on women’s families and communities. Specifically, it is the women who have historically been marginalized based on reasons of race, ethnicity, economic status, and age who have the least access to the maternal health services they require. This report addresses how the States’ obligation to respect and guarantee human rights without discrimination, particularly the right to personal integrity, may help to overcome inequalities in access to maternal health services – understood as health services for women during pregnancy, childbirth, and the post‐ partum period – and ensure that all women, particularly those who have been historically marginalized, enjoy effective access to these services.