Leading up to Mother’s Day on May 13, the Huffington Post’s “Global Motherhood” section, in partnership with Mothers Day Every Day, an initiative of the White Ribbon Alliance and CARE, is publishing opinion pieces from a diverse group of people. The following are summaries of two of those opinion pieces.

• Peter Donaldson, Huffington Post’s “Global Motherhood”: In a speech delivered at a TEDxChange conference in Berlin in April, Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, “argued that greater use of family planning could save women’s lives and advance their own and their children’s health,” Donaldson, president of the Population Council writes, adding, “Melinda’s speech was an effective argument for the benefits of family planning.” Donaldson outlines some of the points raised in Gates’ speech, discusses family planning promotion in Pakistan, and writes, “When women have access to family planning, they can space their pregnancies at healthier intervals. They have fewer children. There are fewer unsafe abortions. And maternal and infant death rates decline.” He concludes, “So this Mother’s Day, visit your mother, send a card, thank her for her favors, and forgive her faults. But in addition, honor your mother by doing something for mothers less fortunate than your own. Make Melinda’s priority your own” (5/8).
• Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Huffington Post’s “Global Motherhood”: Lee reports on her recent trip to Uganda with CARE, during which she sought to “learn how key innovations and investments in foreign assistance, particularly those designed to improve the conditions of women and girls in Uganda, have made progress possible.” She writes, “Among the highlights from my trip: Seeing how HIV-positive women are starting their own businesses through CARE’s savings programs, meeting [HIV-affected] families receiving services from innovative holistic health clinics, and a visit to northern Uganda to meet mothers who have been impacted by decades of conflict.” Lee adds, “I saw how our foreign assistance efforts not only save lives, but have potential to empower women and offer sustainable solutions to combating global poverty” (5/8).