Comparing mortality rates of infantry soldiers to mothers and some personal musings.....
OK a few days ago there was a post in "Good Reads" about mortality rates of childbirth compared to the mortality rate for abortions in the US.
I posted that people should read Roe V Wade as this is certainly not new information, in fact this is the very information used in that pivotal decision.
I began to wonder what the mortality rate for infantry soldiers are....and how they compare to those associated with childbirth.
Here are some statistics that I was able to find online:
The death ratio per 100,000 in Afghanistan was about 88, it was 7 in Iraq.
from : http://www.beforeyousignup.info/joining/army/54-danger
So then what are the mortality rates for childbirth? From Wikipedia:
Maternal Mortality Ratio is the ratio of the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. The MMR is used as a measure of the quality of a health care system. Sierra Leone has the highest maternal death rate at 2,000, and Afghanistan has the second highest maternal death rate at 1900 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, reported by the UN based on 2000 figures. According to the Central Asia Health Review,Afghanistan's maternal mortality rate was 1,600 in 2007.[11] Lowest rates included Ireland at 0 per 100,000 and Austria at 4 per 100,000. In the United States, the maternal death rate was 11 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2005.[12] This rose to 13.3 per 100,000 in 2006.[13] "Lifetime risk of maternal death" accounts for number of pregnancies and risk. In sub-Saharan Africa the lifetime risk of maternal death is 1 in 16, for developed nations only 1 in 2,800.
In 2003, the WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA produced a report with statistics gathered from 2000. The world average per 100,000 was 400, the average for developed regions was 20, and for developing regions 440. Countries with highest maternal mortality were: Sierra Leone (2,000), Afghanistan (1,900), Malawi (1,800), Angola (1,700), Niger (1,600), Tanzania (1,500), Rwanda (1,400), Mali (1,200), Somalia, Zimbabwe, Chad,Central African Republic, Guinea Bissau (1,100 each), Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Burundi, and Mauritania (1,000 each).
So, one can conclude that having a baby in the US is right up there between serving in the infantry in Iraq or Afghanistan....and that the "lifetime risk of maternal death" exceeds all risks for modern infantries.
Before anyone even talks about restricting abortions or contraceptives, be sure to pull out some facts.
And for those that chose to have children- know that it is a monumental physically risky proposition.
It used to be that 1 in 100 women died in childbirth. It is much better now, but it still is by all means a serious and potentially lethal thing for the human body to do. Pretending it is not has become some sort of a propaganda tool, I think.
Perhaps we are not really used to the idea of pregnancy being a choice rather than a condition of the majority of females within the population...... as it used to be here not so very long ago, and still is in much of the world. Perhaps we are so enamored with the magical successes of modern medicine....but the risks and dangers are there.
One may decide that the risks are worth it- but it is not for someone else to impose on a person and certainly not the government. Which is what my reading of Roe v Wade gave to me, all those years ago. It is worth rereading, I think.
= new reply since forum marked as read
but I've been defending choice on the interwebs as a hobby for 20 years now 
All women are supposed to want children and be willing to risk anything to have them. Now, for A woman, parts of that could be true, all of it or none of it - but as a blanket statement about ALL women, it's largely unquestioned. We're even routinely fed feature articles about women who sacrificed their lives, forgoing some life-saving treatment, to bring a pregnancy to term, usually framed as "a mother's love" instead of the rare event it is. (My complaint is with the framing, not any individual's choice -just to be clear 
It is an assumption among almost all societies that every woman wants to have a child, and that she will do anything to have one even though current trends among Industrialized women are showing this to be untrue.
When maternal mortality/morbidity statistics are cited, it's usually seen as a condemnation of our health system, 'safety net' for the poor, poor educational outcomes, etc. While these no doubt do play a role in that and neonatal mortality, it seems few want to acknowledge what every obstetrics textbook does: that each pregnancy is a risk to a woman's life, and even controlling for health, poverty and access to medical care, pregnancy and childbirth bears significant risk of death or disability.
Many women willingly, even joyfully, take on these risks. No one should be forced to.
How to get the word out? Well, I think your analogy is brilliant!
It's higher now than it was 10 years ago. Our standard of living has diminished in a lot of ways.
I oppose forced-birth (aka "pro-life" for the exact same reasons I oppose a miitary draft: It's one thing for people to willingly risk their lives by their own choice for something they highly value. It's a TOTALLY different thing to force anyone to face that same risk against their will. I will never ever support the latter.