{"id":310298,"date":"2024-04-13T13:06:12","date_gmt":"2024-04-13T18:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=310298"},"modified":"2024-04-12T16:09:21","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T21:09:21","slug":"biden-administration-pressures-guatemala-embrace-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/biden-administration-pressures-guatemala-embrace-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden administration pressures Guatemala to embrace abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Guatemala, a strongly pro-life country, is being pressured by the Biden administration to leave the Geneva Consensus Declaration (GCD), a 2020 agreement consisting of 35 countries representing 1.6 billion people. The GCD declared that abortion is not an international right, and was adopted in a ceremony presided by then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar. Now, with pro-abortion President Joe Biden in office, things are different.<\/p>\n

C-Fam reports<\/a> that the Biden administration wants Guatemala to withdraw its signature from the agreement. In response, a group of senators wrote a letter<\/a> encouraging the country’s president to stand strong:<\/p>\n

As you know, Guatemala serves as a regional leader for the GCD \u2013 giving Guatemala the unique opportunity to host pilot projects and other initiatives centered around expanding health for women and families, both in Guatemala and in the region. For example, the First Lady of <\/em>Uganda, the GCD regional leader for Africa, recently partnered with the Institute for Women\u2019s Health for the global launch of the Protego Women\u2019s Optimal Health Framework, a high-level event attended by senior representatives of 8 other African countries to promote high impact, low cost strategies to improve health for women across Africa. Similar non-political leadership opportunities are available to GCD leaders.<\/em><\/p>\n

Guatemala is a vibrant country with a young population and a myriad of indigenous people groups. Guatemala has enormous potential to equip the next generation to promote holistic women\u2019s health and flourishing and ensure family-strengthening and the GCD is a powerful <\/em>mechanism to support these priorities.<\/em><\/p>\n

There is a strong pro-life sentiment in Guatemala, including among citizens, who chased off<\/a> a Dutch abortion ship operated by Women on Waves; one bystander reportedly called out, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you go to the Netherlands to kill children?\u201d Leaders have also refused to allow<\/a> Planned Parenthood to operate within the country.<\/p>\n