Stephen Braunlich
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) recently released its annual report for 2007, touting principally the organization’s work in the field of “sexual and reproductive health.” The radical nature of the document is revealed in the number of times certain issues are mentioned. In a 36 page document “reproductive health” or “reproductive rights”, which are used as euphemisms for abortion, are mentioned 80 times. Widespread killers like malaria and tuberculosis do not receive any mention at all. Clean water, clearly one of the chief problems of the world’s poor, does not receive a mention and safe sanitation, the lack of which is a leading killer in the developing world, received one mention.
The annual report reveals that in 2007, over half of UNFPA’s program expenses went to reproductive health programs, at a cost of $146.6 million. Region by region, more funds were spent on reproductive health initiatives than any other program. Though UNFPA refuses to release detailed accounting of its programs and the annual report lacks the detailed financial accounting commonplace in annual corporate filings, it provides anecdotes of agency expenditures.
Examples of last year’s UNFPA initiatives include developing “guidelines and protocols for reproductive health services” in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. One needs to look elsewhere for specifics about on-the-ground practices, however. UNFPA press releases report that mobile reproductive health teams in Georgia distribute contraceptive devices, including intrauterine device (IUD) insertion kits. IUDs can cause abortions by changing the lining of the uterus to prevent a fertilized egg from implanting. UNFPA consistently denies they support abortion in any way.
The report also reveals techniques used to promote UNFPA’s agenda among minors. UNFPA collaborated with the Lebanese government to create lebteen.com, a site that encourages teenage use of the “morning-after-pill.” Though promoted as “emergency contraceptives,” the pills can function as abortifacients by causing the expulsion of fertilized eggs.
Among the more significant initiatives downplayed in the report is UNFPA’s new “strategic ‘master plan.'” It receives only passing reference though it will guide the agency through 2011.
One of the plan’s major goals is universal access to reproductive health by 2015 through promotion of “reproductive rights” — a term defined on UNFPA’s website as encompassing a right to privacy, which is commonly understood as a euphemism for abortion.
The plan also focuses on mental health as an “integral aspect of reproductive health.” In the United States and elsewhere “mental health” has been used radically to expand abortion rights beyond cases where a mother’s physical well-being is at issue. Indicators that UNFPA will use to gauge success toward meeting this goal include increasing the number of countries that provide public funding for reproductive health services and the prevalence of contraceptive usage.
A second master plan goal is for women and adolescent girls to exercise “reproductive rights.” This objective includes using human rights systems to expand “reproductive rights” and integrate these rights into national policies. Measures of successful implementation include enlarging the number of countries that enshrine “reproductive rights” among the fundamental human rights recognized by their courts, and an increase in the number of laws incorporating such rights.
The United States under the Bush administration has withheld funding from UNFPA because of its complicity in China’s forced abortion and sterilization programs.
