The pro-abortion movement enjoyed tremendous publicity during the month of October because of two major international conferences, one of which was sponsored by UN agencies.
The Women Deliver conference in London, England was co-sponsored by, among other organizations, UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the World Bank. The theme chosen was “Invest in Women – It Pays!” The purpose of the gathering was to promote maternal health.
However, according to Samantha Singson of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, approximately one-third of the 98 sessions over three days centred on sexual and “reproductive” rights – more precisely, abortion.
The conference organizers saw fit to identify 32 “focus countries” that did not successfully reduce their maternal mortality rates since the ratification of the Millennium Development Goals in 2000.
Rina Jimenez-David explained in the Philippine Daily Inquirerthat “in each of the focus countries, government representatives and civil society leaders have been invited to participate in a ministers’ meeting to discuss firm budgetary and programs commitments to address maternal mortality.”
Held in Washington D.C., the special session was hosted by the World Bank. It focused on priorities set forth in the Women Deliver conference agenda; specifically, sexual and “reproductive” health, including abortion.
The list of the 32 countries selected by Women Deliver was not available on the conference website. Meetings of this type can be used to demand that pro-life countries review their positions on family planning and abortion in order to get funding.
This was not the only meeting that aimed at weakening the morale of pro-life countries. Latin American countries were targeted in a Women Deliver session entitled, “Repositioning Latin America and the Caribbean to Address the Unfinished Sexual and Reproductive Health Agenda.”
Latin America has been a stronghold of the pro-life movement. Many countries in the region maintain strict pro-life legal frameworks. The conference abstract states that the panel was committed to “exploring the ongoing sexual and reproductive health problems faced by marginalized sub-groups.” Pro-abortion NGOs and delegates will continue to pressure the region to fall in line, at the risk of losing funding and support from donor countries in Europe and elsewhere.
The following week, the Global Safe Abortion Conference 2007 took place in London, England. Marie Stopes International, Abortion Rights and Ipas, the main sponsors and organizers of the gathering, ensured the presence of people who have significant ties to the UN or its subsidiary bodies.
The purpose of the conference was to “build consensus and momentum around international efforts to reduce the unacceptable toll on women’s health and lives caused by unsafe abortion, through increasing access to safe services, recognizing women’s right to self determination and encouraging legal reform.”
The conference promoted the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Abortion Act in England. Dr Paul Van Look, director of the Department of Reproductive Health and Research for the World Health Organization, chaired an afternoon session on the second day of the event.
It is also noteworthy to mention the presence of Joanna Erdmann, co-director of the Program on Reproductive and Sexual Health Law at the University of Toronto.
Other topics of interest included, “Young People as Advocate” (which was also covered during the Women Deliver Conference), “Whose right to life? Abortion Rights in the International Law” and “Expanding Access Within the Law and Legal and Ethical Barriers Limiting Abortion.”
The Women Deliver Conference, coupled with the Global Safe Abortion Conference, have generated a lot of talk in mainstream and online media, but the pro-life voice was again largely (officially) ignored. This doesn’t mean pro-life organizations ignored the conferences. They monitored events from the outside and are now strategizing on how to best counter the pro-abortion activists at the UN in the aftermath of the closed conferences in London.
