The deVeber Institute for Bioethics and Social Research conducts and disseminates research on topics connected to human life in its biological, social and ethical dimensions.

Chile, Uganda, Nicaragua and El Salvador are some of the countries Gentles mentioned where abortion is illegal.

"But Chile didn't just ban abortion," said Gentles, research director at deVeber. “They increased education for women. They also made it a high priority to improve health care facilities particularly surrounding child birth so they improved prenatal care, improved delivery by trained birth attendants and obstetrical care.”

Before abortion was banned in El Salvador in 1998, Gentles said, the maternal mortality ratio was 155 for 100,000 live births. But after criminalizing abortion, the ratio fell by more than half to 70 for every 100,000.

“Making abortion illegal did not drive women into the hands of back-alley abortionists,” he said.

Walley, founder of Matercare International, a non-governmental organization of health care professionals who aim to reduce abortion and maternal mortality, shared some statistics with the audience.

Referring to the fifth Millennium Development Goal, which is to reduce maternal mortality by 75 per cent by 2015, he said, “The British Medical Journal pointed out that at the current rate of progress, the goal won’t be met until 2282.”

Walley offered reasons for this.

“It’s because maternal mortality is politically unimportant unlike AIDS. I don’t mean to say that AIDS is unimportant, absolutely it is... Maternal mortality gets forgotten and that’s what we’re seeing.”

Other reasons Walley pointed to about the lack of progress on maternal mortality include what he called "the conspiracy of silence" or culpable neglect of the international community, the lack of imagination about how to solve the problem and the idea that all problems can be solved through abortion and birth control.

Bonomi, a research intern at deVeber, presented research on a nationwide study of resources available to pregnant and parenting students on university campuses. With questions aimed at school administration, the survey was based on six criteria: education, housing, child care, health care, financial aid and overall child friendliness of the campus.

“The general trend showed not only lack of resources but also general ignorance amongst staff and administrators as to which resources were available (to pregnant students) and how students could gain access to them," Bonomi said.

“If a woman feels like she can’t continue her education and have a child then her choice is already made for her in a lot of ways.”