New York, NY — After nearly 30 hours of bitter, nonstop negotiations over teenagers and sex, delegates to the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children tentatively agreed over the weekend on a declaration of goals.
The most fractious debates during the three-day session concerned the use of the term “reproductive health services.'' The Bush administration argued that the phrase connotes abortion and a delegate from Canada at a previous UN event conceded that point. They sought to remove it or amend it to exclude abortion explicitly.
Delegates from other nations, including those from predominantly Roman Catholic Latin American countries, had opposed the United States' efforts to limit the language because they are desperate for reproductive health services that do not include abortions. They feared limiting the language would limit non-abortion services.
Eventually, the Bush administration achieved partial victory. The term “reproductive health services'' was expunged from the document.
A United States official said the compromise language needed no annotations on abortion. “The language is general enough so it doesn't suggest that abortion is appropriate for children,'' the official said,“We have a consensus document that meets U.S. concerns.''
“The Bush administration, and the Holy See were attacked in the liberal newspapers all over the world for standing against abortion for children,” said Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute. “The US, the Holy See and various Muslim states drew a line in the sand against abortion a year ago and no matter what they never wavered from their commitment to life and family.”
Family Research Council's Bill Saunders was a member of the Bush administration team at the summit and reports the Bush Administration made it absolutely clear that it will oppose future efforts at UN conferences to promote abortion.
“While pro-family forces should savor this victory, we must be vigilant that the strong pro-family, pro-life position is advanced by the Administration and its allies at future conferences,” Family Research Council President Ken Connor said. “This was a vital first step, but many more steps need to be taken to secure 'A World Fit for Children.'”
Meanwhile, because of budget restrictions at UN headquarters, some night-time negotiations took place at the German Mission. German officials used this opportunity to block pro-life and pro-family NGOs organizations from their normal involvement in the UN process, according to Ruse.
“German Ambassador Hanns Schumacher, who is acting as a chairman for negotiations, told a meeting of delegates that the German security guards had been 'seriously assaulted'” by pro-life organizations, Ruse explained.
“When confronted after the meeting, Schumacher admitted that no assault has taken place, but he refused to apologize for the statement, or to issue a public retraction. Instead, he said that he was 'appalled and offended by the fact that you are criticizing us. I have offered the hospitality of the German mission when I don't have to do so I will not accept statements of this kind.'”
C-FAM has formally complained to the German Ambassador to the UN for the rough treatment pro-life and pro-family NGOs have suffered at the hands of German diplomats.
See The New York Times for full coverage of this story.
(This article courtesy of Steven Ertelt and the Pro-Life Infonet email newsletter. For more information or to subscribe go to www.prolifeinfo.org or email infonet@prolifeinfo.org.)
