UN Women--the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women--has released the World Survey on the Role of Women in Development 2014: Gender Equality and Sustainable Development. The world survey is mandated by the Second Committee of the United Nations General Assembly and is issued every five years.
Access to abortion is included in the recommendations in the area of Population:
"Ground sustainable population policies in sexual and reproductive health and rights, including
the provision of universally accessible quality sexual and reproductive
health services, information and education across the life cycle,
including safe and effective methods of modern contraception, maternal
health care, comprehensive sexuality education and safe abortion;" (page 114)
In addition, UN
Women links sustainable development with policies and legal settings
that allow unfettered access to abortion for women and girls and assigns
new responsibility to governments for provision of health services that
provide for the "full realization of sexual and reproductive health and
rights" stating:
"Sustainable development cannot be achieved unless all women and girls enjoy universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights over the life cycle, enabling them to make free and informed decisions about sex and reproduction.
This requires the development of policies and legal frameworks and the
strengthening of health systems to provide universally accessible
quality sexual and reproductive health services, information and
education across the life cycle, including on safe and effective methods of modern contraception, safe abortion, comprehensive sexuality education and maternal health care.
For the full realization of sexual and reproductive health and rights, governments
have
a responsibility to ensure that along with other essential services,
health services are available, accessible, acceptable and of appropriate
quality for all. This requires targeted measures to address the
structural inequalities, stigma and discrimination that limit access to
health services for women and girls." (page 89)
The 2014 Survey
takes on added importance as the new Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) are in the process of being debated and defined at the United
Nations, with final agreement expected in September, 2015. Ultimately
the SDGs will guide the world's development priorities from January 2016
until 2031 and cost $5 trillion to $7 trillion a year, according to
the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development's World Investment Report: Investing in the SDGs: An Action Plan.
The SDGs are
expected to impact country policies as they are integrated into national
development plans. Pro-abortion activists know this and are working
furiously to ensure that access to "reproductive rights" is in the final
SDGs. Currently the draft SDGs include a target on "access to sexual
and reproductive health and reproductive rights".
The Survey appears to be another tool in that effort as it promotes "achievement of sexual and reproductive health and rights for all people" and states that such an achievement "will necessitate a new social contract, where governments meet their obligations as duty bearers and individuals claim their rights."
In addition to new obligations for governments, assessment of whether "sustainable development is in line with gender equality and women's human rights" will also be pursued according to the Survey. Policy recommendations are directed to "States,
international organizations, including the United Nations, and human
rights mechanisms, the private sector, nongovernmental organizations,
trade unions and other stakeholders."
Included in
the Survey is recognition of the millions of "missing girls" killed
through sex-selective abortion with a reference to the "some 3.9 million excess deaths of girls and women under the age of 60". A breakdown of the numbers states "one fifth of girls die in infancy, two fifths of girls and women die in their reproductive years, and around two fifths are accounted for by sex-selective abortion of female foetuses (the "missing girls"), and the numbers are growing in sub-Saharan Africa and in the countries most affected by HIV/AIDS (World Bank, 2012)." (page 81)
Missing from the
survey is any mention of forced abortion or advocacy for the millions of
Chinese women who have suffered this extreme brutality and violation of
the right to personal integrity as their precious children are
destroyed through enforcement of China's one-child policy. Instead it
states:
"The
constitution of China mandates that the government support family
planning and that individual couples practice it. The one-child policy,
introduced in the late 1970s, has been implemented through a system of
economic and social incentives and disincentives, along with free
contraceptive services (United Nations, 2002)."(page 87)
There is a
general acknowledgement of the violations committed against women in the
name of population control, including the use of pressure and bribes to
convince women to use "higher risk contraceptives", but no where in the
report does it list or explain which contraceptives are "risky" or why
they are considered to be a threat to women's health. The Survey states:
"From the late 1960s to the 1990s,
reducing fertility in poor countries was a major component of bilateral
and multilateral agency policies and programmes, and was also
vigorously pursued by national population planning in developing
countries. The urgency of limiting birth rates led to coercive
practices, such as forced sterilization and pressuring or bribing women
to use higher risk contraceptives without adequate informed consent or
medical support." (page 87)
In regards to current practices, the report qualifies that coercion "may" take place today: "Narrowly focused population policies may prescribe coercive measures to achieve fertility reduction that can have significant implications for women's enjoyment of human rights."
UN Women ought to
be investigating the use of coercion and pressure still taking place
today as population control efforts continue to adversely impact women's
human rights around the world.
UN Women should be
leading the universal outcry against the brutality of forced abortion
and sterilization that are inflicted upon Chinese women every day. Its
failure to protest is deafening.
Additionally, UN
Women's promotion of the violence of abortion in the name of sustainable
development at this critical juncture during UN negotiations is an
insult to the many countries whose national laws and cultural and
religious values respect and protect life from the moment of conception.
The world deserves lasting measures that improve lives, not violent
ones that destroy lives.