At the Clinton Global Initiative, I got into a conversation with a reporter (from a big U.S. media outlet) about the statistics on maternal health, a recurring topic of the three day event – that more than 500,000 women die from pregnancy or childbirth complications every year -- and he said, "Isn't that a form of population control that the world needs?"

And why, you’re wondering, knowing me, am I quoting him? Because the thinking behind it might be one of the reasons we’ve done so little for all the women around the world who are dying in childbirth, largely preventable deaths, and because, there’s a good argument, beyond the many really obvious ones, that maybe he hasn’t thought of, and I want everyone who thinks like him to know.

Here’s how it goes – A healthy mother takes care of her family. Healthy families make for healthy communities. Healthy communities make for healthy nations. It’s geopolitics. When a mother dies, the chances of her other children surviving or doing well in life in a developing country drop enormously. Women receive 90% of the micro-loans. They are the force for improving life in their communities, and when one in seven dies in childbirth, as happens in some countries, there’s no hope.

If we want nations to raise healthy citizens (ones that are less likely to become terrorists and more likely to care about the world around them and lead productive lives), then a first step is to save the mothers.

Here are some quotes -

The Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg: "What we did this morning was to launch a big campaign on the child and maternal health. And Norway announced that we will increase our financial support with $1 billion U.S. dollars.

"One woman dies each minute giving birth to a child. In Norway, one woman per 30,000 births dies. In Afghanistan and some other countries, it's one in seven. Among the most dangerous things a woman can do is to give birth."

Helene Gayle, M.D., PH.D., President, CARE International: "In Peru, we were able to reduce maternal mortality by almost 50 percent, 49 percent in a project that really just worked with communities. [We] developed the infrastructure, trained healthcare workers, made sure that women had access to services and that they knew how to access the services and felt empowered to do that … So we have programs that show, if you really just put the right interventions in place, most of them, incredibly cost effective, that they do have real and tangible results."

Former Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.): "One of the things that I think all of us from whatever country we are from, need to engage, and in my case, the American people, but also globally, on these issues, better understanding. The fact it is affordable, cheap, life saving is so crystal clear."

Gayle Smith, in her comments as one of four people closing the conference, “If we want to change the world, change regions, rebuild – women are not an add-on. They are the way forward.”

Thomas Kalil, also one of the speakers summarizing the conference at its conclusion, "Giving birth to a child should be a blessing and not a deadly game of Russian roulette.”

Former President Bill Clinton: “There's only one thing we can do to slow down the population growth -- put all the girls in the world in school and give all the young women a chance to make a living. We know that delays the age of marriage. We know that delays the age of child bearing. We know that leads to relatively smaller families."

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On another note, the CGI finale is up on the site, and is an AMAZING thing to watch. All the speakers are phenomenal, but if you want start with just the highlights, watch Gene Sperling (he's the first person President Clinton hands the mike to), and then watch Clinton's closing.

Here’s just a bit of what was said in the closing …

President Clinton said he sees CGI as an “action-forcing event.” He wants to “change the playing field for the future.”

Gene Sperling talked about education being the silent crisis because there is no moment when the CNN camera captures a kid dying from lack of education. Every year of education for a mother increases the chance of her child living by 10%. When a woman has five years of education, her children are 50% more likely to see their fifth birthday.

When you walk into the poorest schools, the kids have the highest hopes, to be teachers, doctors, heads of state. These kids aren’t victims. They’re like our kids.

One of the millennium goals is universal primary education by the year 2015. Singularly, the most ambitious and pathetic goal.

From President Clinton, talking about how terrible it is that hundreds of millions of kids are not getting educated, “Every parent knows that every year in a child’s life is a stunning panorama of unpredictable development.”

Here’s some more from Clinton (paraphrased) “Reimagining being a 21st century citizen begins with believing it will make a difference to you and others. It will make you feel better (studies have shown it will make you healthier and live longer too) and you have to believe it will make a difference.

He talked about the 50th anniversary of the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, and how these were ordinary kids who went on to live good, productive lives. Then he made the point that what they did, by standing up to the Governor of Arkansas, and the protesters who didn’t want them going to the all-white school, was to move us from opinion to conviction. We couldn’t just have an opinion when this was in our face. We moved from inclination to action. From “I wish” to “I will.”

“That’s what I’m trying to do here,” said President Clinton, to move us “from being people who endlessly say ‘I wish.’ I never cease to be amazed by the people who step forward with ‘I will.’”

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Lastly, a HUGE topic of the Initiative was global warming, The commitments made for improving the environment, cutting greenhouse gases, and creating new regulatory and international frameworks were incredibly smart. If this topic interests you, definitely read the transcripts and watch the videos on the site.