Friday Fax
April 3, 2009 | Volume 12, Special Edition
Dear Colleague,
We report this breaking news. There has been an
unexpected victory at the UN meeting that ended just minutes ago.
Spread the word.
Yours sincerely,
Austin Ruse
President
UN Commission Ends with Delegations Saying No to Abortion
By Samantha Singson
(NEW YORK – C-FAM) As the sun rose on the
last day of negotiations at the Commission on
Population and Development (CPD) at the United
Nations (UN) today, delegations were still
embroiled in a contentious debate over language
concerning “sexual and reproductive health and
rights,” which some radical NGOs and UN
committees have interpreted and used to promote
abortion. As UN member states came together at
the closing meeting to adopt the document,
delegations took the floor to define abortion out of the document.
Up until the eleventh hour, the contentious
term “sexual and reproductive health and rights”
remained in the draft document. Just prior to
adoption, Iran took the floor to object to the
phrase which has never before been included in
any negotiated UN document. Iran stressed that
the term remained problematic for a number of
delegations and urged the Commission to revert
back to previously agreed upon and carefully
negotiated language from the 1994 International
Conference on Population and Development (ICPD)
Program of Action, which is understood not to create any right to abortion.
In an attempt to get consensus, the
chairwoman from Mexico suspended the meeting and
after twenty minutes, returned to the room and
announced that Iran’s proposal would be accepted
and that the term “sexual and reproductive health
and rights” would be removed from the text. The
document was then adopted by consensus.
Several delegations, however, went further
and made statements to explicitly define abortion
out of the CPD document and to reiterate that the
document created no new rights. Comoros, Peru,
Poland, Ireland, Chile, the Holy See, Malta, and
Saint Lucia spoke out against the other remaining
reproductive health-related terms such as
“reproductive rights,” “reproductive health
services” and “sexual and reproductive health”
and emphasized that these could not be construed
to “support, endorse or promote” abortion.
Malta’s ambassador stated that his
delegation was finding it more difficult in
accepting the resolutions of UN bodies like the
CPD where there were consistent attempts to
expand “reproductive health” to include abortion.
Saint Lucia made an explicit objection to
the term “safe abortion” because the term could
“give the impression that abortion was a
procedure completely free of medical and
psychological risks.” Saint Lucia also
highlighted a provision in the CPD document which
called on states where abortion was legal to
“train and equip health service providers and
should take such measures to ensure that such
abortion is safe and accessible.” The Saint
Lucian representative stressed that her
delegation understood this provision did not
impact the right of healthcare providers to
refuse to perform or be complicit in abortions as
a matter of conscience, stating, “Again, no new
rights are created or acknowledged in this
document, and the universal right to conscience
can in no way be overridden or weakened.”
Only the representative of Norway expressed
regret that the term “sexual and reproductive
rights” was not accepted in the text, saying that
his country had widespread access to abortion and
virtually no negative effects on women.
The CPD will next meet in April 2010.
Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute
Editor in Chief – Austin Ruse
Managing Editor – Piero Tozzi
Assistant Managing Editor – Hannah Russo
Chief Correspondent – Samantha Singson
Contributors – Susan Yoshihara / Katharina Rothweiler
© Copyright 2009 Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required.
866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 495, New York, NY 10017
<http://www.elabs3.com/c.html?rtr=on&s=ebss,zu3b,4t6x,63ar,sk0,40dr,867>www.c-fam.org
Subscribe |To update your subscription email [email protected].
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
Please note that I do not send or open attachments sent to this list.
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Catholics on Fire" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected]
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/Catholics-on-Fire
May the blessing of Jesus and our Blessed Mother be with you
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
