{"id":237658,"date":"2021-01-09T15:43:28","date_gmt":"2021-01-09T21:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=237658"},"modified":"2021-01-15T00:36:46","modified_gmt":"2021-01-15T06:36:46","slug":"united-nations-promoting-human-right-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/united-nations-promoting-human-right-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"The United Nations is heavily promoting the idea of a ‘human right to abortion’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

(WASHINGTON, D.C., C-Fam<\/a>) A recent publication from the United Nations Population Fund illustrates several troubling trends at the UN: the steady push to insinuate a human right to abortion, the overreach of special experts in the human rights system, and the tendency of problematic language and ideas to migrate from one agency to another.<\/p>\n

In December, UNFPA published a guidance<\/a> document how to apply a human rights-based approach to its work in family planning and maternal health.\u00a0 UNFPA\u2019s original mandate was established in 1994 by the International Conference on Population and Development.\u00a0 But the new report argues new \u201chuman rights\u201d have been discovered by various UN bodies.<\/p>\n

For instance, in 2016 the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights issued \u201cGeneral Comment 22\u201d that UNFPA says details obligations to ensure a right to abortion.<\/p>\n

This comment, as well as any other \u201celaborations\u201d issued by treaty monitoring bodies, are not binding.\u00a0 The text of the treaty itself is binding, but only on those countries that have ratified it.\u00a0 But the comments of UN committees are not binding on states that have ratified the treaty.<\/p>\n

The United States, for instance, ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, whose monitoring body released \u201cGeneral Comment 36\u201d in 2018.\u00a0 According to UNFPA, this comment \u201cfinds an obligation for States to provide safe, legal and effective access to abortion\u201d in certain exceptional cases, such as rape, incest, fetal non-viability, and where the life or health of the mother is at risk. Again, this comment is not binding on the United States or any other nation that has ratified this document.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0United Nations gives China seat on Human Rights Council, despite abuses and genocide<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Abortion has never been an international human right, and neither UNFPA nor the UN\u2019s human rights mechanisms such as treaty bodies have the power to make it a right.\u00a0 Nevertheless, the insinuation that such a right exists has been steadily imposed by treaty bodies and then echoed by other parts of the UN system, including UNFPA and the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n

UNFPA, in particular, has attempted to walk a fine line on the abortion issue for decades.\u00a0 When the United States under President Trump cut its funding due to its promotion of abortion and complicity in China\u2019s former one-child policy, UNFPA repeatedly asserted<\/a> that it \u201cdoes not perform, promote or fund abortion.\u201d\u00a0 At a previous executive board meeting, some of UNFPA\u2019s evaluators suggested<\/a> it could do more to promote abortion, while praising its \u201cdiscreet leadership\u201d in getting abortion-causing drugs onto several countries\u2019 essential medicines lists.<\/p>\n

U.S. president-elect Joe Biden has stated<\/a> his intention to restore funding to UNFPA.\u00a0 Even so, as UNFPA communications director has repeatedly said, other countries have more than picked up the slack.\u00a0 In September, he was quoted in PassBlue<\/em> boasting<\/a> about the agency\u2019s unprecedented support, largely from Europeans and Canada.\u00a0 \u201cSo we have more money than we have ever had in the history of UNFPA.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is clear that pressure from treaty monitoring bodies and subsequent support from legislators and judges will increase in the coming years. The way governments can protect themselves is to take on the role of \u201cpersistent objectors,\u201d a concept in international law that would stop a customary right to abortion. The recently released Geneva Consensus Declaration<\/a> does just that.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: Rebecca Oas, Ph.D. writes for C-Fam. This article<\/a> first appeared in the Friday Fax, an internet report published weekly by C-Fam (Center for Family & Human Rights), a New York and Washington D<\/i>C-based research institute (<\/i>https:\/\/c-fam.org\/<\/i><\/a>). This article appears with permission.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(WASHINGTON, D.C., C-Fam) A recent publication from the United Nations Population Fund illustrates several troubling trends at the UN: the steady push to insinuate a human right to abortion, the overreach of special experts in the human rights system, and the tendency of problematic language and ideas to migrate from one agency to another. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":715,"featured_media":211471,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[7077,7,5],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe United Nations is heavily promoting the idea of a 'human right to abortion'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Abortion has never been an international human right, but the insinuation that such a right exists has been steadily imposed by treaty bodies.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/united-nations-promoting-human-right-abortion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The United Nations is heavily promoting the idea of a 'human right to 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