All too often, our focus on ending abortion in the United States keeps us from seeing the fight for life at the international level. The reality is, however, that only 3% of the world’s abortions occur in the United States. According to the Guttmacher Institute (the research arm of Planned Parenthood), there are 42 million abortions world-wide every year. So who is speaking up for life internationally? Here is a look at some of the world’s pro-life and pro-woman leaders.

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan
The late Benazir Bhutto was the first female prime minister of Pakistan – and the first female leader of any Muslim state. She was dedicated to women’s rights for both the born and unborn.

At the United Nations Cairo Conference in 1994, Bhutto said:

“I dream of a Pakistan, of an Asia, of a world, where we can commit our social resources to the development of human life and not to its destruction. That dream is far from the reality we endure.”

She also added:

“The traditional family is the basic unit on which any society rests. It is the anchor on which the individual relies as he embarks upon the Journey of Life.”

Speaking at the Fourth World Conference on Women, Prime Minsiter Bhutto recognized the challenges facing unborn females and vowed to fight for their right to life.

“Too often, when a woman expects a girl, she abets her husband in abandoning or aborting that innocent, perfectly formed child. As we gather here today, the cries of the girl child reach out to us. This conference need to chart a course that can create a climate where the girl child is as welcomed and valued as a boy child, that the girl child is considered as worthy as a boy child.”

Benazir Bhutto worked tirelessly for the dignity of women – mothers and their unborn children. Her work led to her assisination in December of 2007. Her voice is deeply missed, but her work will forever stand as a testament to the value of life.

President Pratibha Patil, India
President Patil became India’s first female president in July of 2007. Like Benazir Bhutto, she led the fight for dignity for unborn girls. In her first address as president, she said, “We must banish malnutrition, social evils infant mortality and female foeticide.”

Senator Ursula Stephens, Australia
Senators Ursual Stephens is the President of the New South Wales Labor Party in Australia. She has long been an outspoken advocate for the right to life. Her votes reflect her dedication to the cause.

In a statement explaining why she voted against legalizing a new form of aborifacient, Stephens said:

“Every unborn child is a human being. This is not a matter of belief but a fact. Each unborn child has the potential to contribute enormously to our great nation.”

“Elective abortion must be studied in the same fashion and with similar vigour as cigarette smoking so that women can be fully and accurately informed about potential health effects—both mental and physical.”

“If human life is not protected by law, if people’s responsibility to care for the unwanted is wiped out, what precedents are we setting for future debates about life issues?”

Mother Teresa, India
Mother Teresa tirelessly fought for the dignity of life all around the world. Her work as a nun in Calcutta, India inspired the world to look with love upon all the suffering members of society. A woman of great compassion, Mother Teresa was not afraid to speak up against injustices.

She criticized the abortion policies of President Clinton and spoke directly to him at the National Prayer Breakfast in 1994. She said:

“But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself.

And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts…

Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.”

Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon, Vatican
Mary Ann Glendon was named the United States Ambassador to the Vatican in the spring of 2008. She is only the second woman to be appointed Ambassador to the Holy See. Glendon has spoken up for the rights of the unborn, both in the United States and abroad.

She wrote in a recent article, The Women of Roe v. Wade:

“Most women have understood all along that Roe v. Wade would not, as Friedan once predicted, ‘make women whole.’”

“There is growing awareness that the moral ecology of the country has suffered something like an environmental disaster, and that we are faced with a very complicated clean-up operation.”

“We are hearing more voices of women who are in touch with the real-life needs and aspirations of a broad range of women . . . We are hearing enough to give us hope that a collaborative, creative effort is underway--an effort to promote a moral ecology that is in keeping with American traditions of welcoming the stranger, caring for the weak and vulnerable, lending a helping hand to the needy, and giving a fresh start to someone who got off on the wrong track.”

Rosario Murillo, Nicaragua
Rosario Murillo, the wife of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, has helped lead the fight to ban abortion in her country. In 2006, Nicaragua passed a blanket ban on abortions.

In a recent article on radical feminism Murillo wrote:

"Their values represent the Old Society, exclusive, unjust, and impoverishing... where men and women...prefer to raise pets instead of children, and depopulate and disharmonize the Earth."

"This is junk feminism, and furthermore, as I already said, it is in the hands of women who neither live as women, nor know the feminine soul, individual or collective. They ignore our daily battles; they are not the flesh and bone of a woman. They have no family ties or stable affections; they disdain those blessed ties of unconditional affection, indispensible for healthy human development."

"They don't admit that women opt for routes that are constructive for women, with an inclusive conscience, a maternal instinct, and a sense of family, of a couple, and of human brotherhood. They do not accept that men and women believe in a different future, and that we work together, creating the indispensable difference between today and tomorrow."

Corazon Aquino, The Philippines
As the president of the Philippines, Corazon Aquino signed Proclamation 214 in 1998, declaring every second week in February, “Respect and Care for Life Week.”

She wrote in the order that society must recognize:

“Moral and constitutional obligations to protect human life or one's inherent right to life…frightening losses of innocent human lives by abortion…[and] the value and sacredness of human life.”