By Stefano Gennarini, J.D.    | March 24, 2017   Center for Family & Human Rights

NEW YORK, March 24 (C-Fam) The world witnessed the United States returning to the pro-life fold after years of abortion advocacy from the Obama administration yesterday during the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

After the gavel fell signaling the adoption of the annual agreement of the commission, known as Agreed Conclusions, the United States delegation delivered a poignant pro-life statement.

International consensus on UN policy on “sexual and reproductive health” is that “it does not create new international rights, including a right to abortion,” the U.S. said.

The turn rolled back gains for abortion supporters, such as explicit mentions of abortion without the full spectrum of caveats from previous UN agreements that cast abortion in a bad light.

This year, the agreement not only omitted abortion, but qualified all references to “sexual and reproductive health,” “sexual and reproductive health-care services” and “reproductive rights” by referring to UN previous agreements saying abortion is not a right, committing nations to help women avoid abortion, and precluding them from promoting it as a method of family planning.

The United States said it, “does not support abortion in reproductive health assistance” and emphasized that “the U.S. is the largest bilateral donor of maternal, newborn and child health assistance and family planning.” This was a response to critics of the recently restored Mexico City Policy defunding groups promoting or performing abortion.

The agreement dealt a hard blow to European and Nordic countries that promote “comprehensive sexuality education” that teaches children younger than 4 about “early childhood masturbation,” LGBT rights, and legal prostitution.

A last-ditch attempt by the EU to remove caveats to the term “sexual and reproductive health” failed.
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