Paul Tuns:
On April 9, Campaign Life Coalition youth coordinator Kim Headley provided a defense of the preborn at a meeting of the United Nations’ Commission on Population and Development (CPD), during proceedings dominated by pro-abortion and population control advocates.
Last month, the UN held its 58th session of the Commission on Population and Development and Headley made her remarks at a side-event titled, “Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights as Catalyst for Social and Economic Rights: Advancing Health, Equity and Development.” The side-event was co-sponsored by the governments of Brazil, Colombia, and South Africa, and UN organizations such PMNCH (Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health), World Health Organization, Human Reproduction Programme, and United Nations Population Fund.
Headley said, “Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages must begin at the very beginning of life,” explaining, “Science is clear: human life begins at fertilization.” Headley added, “From that first moment, a new, distinct, and living human being begins to develop with unique DNA, and the same intrinsic value and dignity as any one of us here.”
The CLC representative said: “If we are serious about health and well-being for all, we must include the most vulnerable—those in the womb. When we speak of all ages, we must include a zygote, only 2 hours old, or a 5-week-old embryo or a 14-week-old fetus. These are simply stages of development in the continuum of human life, just like ‘infant,’ ‘child,’ ‘adolescent,’ and ‘adult’.” Headley said, “Using medical terms to justify the destruction of life does not change the reality that abortion intentionally ends the life of a developing human being. Every abortion kills a pre-born child.”
Headley criticized the UN’s focus on sexual and reproductive health and rights, which are repeated as a mantra at Turtle Bay so often that it has its own acronym (SRHR). She said, “We have also observed that every time terms like ‘sexual and reproductive health and rights’ are pushed in negotiations, they create division and disrupt consensus in multilateral discussions.” Headley said, “This language is deeply controversial, with no universally agreed-upon definition” and “It’s often used as a vehicle to promote abortion and other ideologically driven agendas.”
Headley insisted, “There is no international right to abortion and attempts to frame it as such are misleading and legally unfounded.” In many cases, she said, “SRHR is wielded as a tool of ideological colonization, imposing values on nations and peoples who uphold the sanctity of life, family, and sovereign cultural and moral traditions.”
The pro-life youth activist said, “As we seek to build societies that protect and uplift all people, let us not forget that peace, justice, and health begin in the womb,” so “Protecting human life at conception is foundational to a truly inclusive and life-affirming approach to development.” Headley said abortion does not promote health but it “ends the life of a developing child and often leaves women physically, emotionally, and psychologically wounded.” She said, “This is not care; this is violence.”
Headley concluded her remarks by saying “human rights begin when human life begins” and “No child should be excluded from protection simply because they are small, hidden, or yet to be born.”
Josie Luetke, CLC’s director of education and advocacy, also spoke during the UN Commission on Population and Development (CPD). She addressed Natalia Kanem, executive director of the United Nation’s Population Fund (UNFPA).
Luetke asked: “If our goal is peace, as the UNFPA executive director mentioned at the beginning, why are we perpetuating violence against pre-born human beings through abortion, which sometimes involves the dismemberment of human beings in the womb as their limbs are ripped off one-by-one in what’s known as a D&E or Dilation and Evacuation procedure? What about the human rights of these human beings?”
Kanen called the question “disinformation” because Luetke’s “volatile claims … cannot be proven by evidence.” Luetke presented a picture of a baby who died after being torn apart during an abortion.
The CPD could not produce an outcome document because of a lack of consensus, with countries such as the United States and numerous majority Muslim countries opposed to repeated references to SRHR. CLC Youth tweeted, “Considering the final text included multiple references to ‘sexual & reproductive health & rights’ (code for abortion), this is a good thing!”
