Globalism at its Worst: The United Nations Holds Conference to Promote Abortion Worldwide

This week the United Nations (U.N.) is holding an international conference to promote abortion as a universal right for women.

In 1994, the U.N. held the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, Egypt. To celebrate the 25 year anniversary, the UN is holding this Nairobi Summit to tackle several issues including a pledge for countries to provide universal access to sexual health services and “uphold the right to sexual and reproductive health care even in humanitarian and fragile contexts.” Whatever that means.

According to The Daily Signal, “The Nairobi Summit will feature speaking roles for the leaders of the abortion giants International Planned Parenthood Federation and Marie Stopes International and includes commitments for attendees to sign on in support of the ‘She Decides’ campaign.” Yet practically every pro-life group that has tried to attend has been denied.

New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal excoriating the goals of the new conference. “The governments of Kenya and Denmark and the United Nations Population Fund are attempting to hijack the U.N.’s global population and development work to support an extreme pro-abortion agenda,” Rep. Smith writes.

He notes that the ICPD had originally acknowledged sex-selective abortion as a harmful practice. This kind of abortion disproportionally affects unborn female babies, since men are more desirable than women in many countries. Indeed, the ICPD originally urged governments to “take the necessary measures to prevent infanticide and prenatal sex selection.”

The goal of the Nairobi Summit is a far cry from the original intention of the ICPD.

Countries and concerned parties will not be able to provide input to the working document of the Nairobi Summit. Instead, the document, titled the Nairobi Statement, was prepared in advance for countries to sign.

The Nairobi Statement is ambitious with a goal for “zero unmet need for family planning information and services, and universal availability of quality, accessible, affordable and safe modern contraceptives.” In addition, the statement calls for universal access to safe abortions.

These statements are nestled under the goal of achieving “universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights as a part of universal health coverage.”

This is code for free, unlimited abortions paid for by governments around the world i.e., taxpayers everywhere. Signing countries would be committing to provide for universal access to health coverage, which includes a woman’s so-called right to an abortion.

The Daily Signal notes that, “Attendees of the Nairobi Summit would do well to remember that the many noble aims of the ICPD – universal access to education, reducing maternal and child mortality and ending violence against women and girls – had broad international consensus in 1994, and still does today.”

In an address to the U.N. General Assembly on September 23, 2019, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, reiterated the strong pro-life commitment of the Trump Administration on an international level.

“We do not support references to ambiguous terms and expressions, such as sexual and reproductive health and rights in U.N. documents, because they can undermine the critical role of the family and promote practices, like abortion, in circumstances that do not enjoy international consensus and which can be misinterpreted by U.N. agencies,” Secretary Azar said. “There is no international right to an abortion and these terms should not be used to promote pro-abortion policies and measures.”

It’s unfortunate the ICPD has devolved so far in only 25 years. The conference went from denouncing sex-selective abortions and infanticide to promoting global access to unlimited abortions for free, funded by taxpayers.

Let’s pray the attending countries will see through this charade and call it what it is, an attempt by western elites to promote their pro-abortion ideology on poorer countries.

What a shame.