UNITED NATIONS — Contrary to reports by the New York Times, Reuters and countless other news agencies, the United States is not backing down from its amendment to clarify that the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action do not call for the right to abortion.
At a press briefing March 3, Antonia Kirkland from the pro-abortion NGO Equality Now asked U.S. Ambassador Ellen Sauerbrey, head of the U.S. delegation, if the US was withdrawing its amendment as reported by the New York Times. Ambassador Sauerbrey responded, “No.” She noted that the US would continue to work to pass the document to reaffirm the Beijing Declaration with its clarifying amendment.
Samantha Singson, a pro-life lobbyist at the United Nations representing Campaign Life Coalition, told LifeSiteNews.com that at a US NGO Caucus meeting, angry feminist activists hoped to force the US to withdraw its amendment by presenting a petition signed by some 320 US organizations. They claimed that the US Ambassador did not represent her constituency and that the proposed US amendment did not represent the views of civil society.
However, in less than twelve hours the NGO pro-life and pro-family coalition was able to present over 800 letters from organizations around the world which support the US delegation’s amendment.
Austin Ruse of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Action League (C-Fam) noted that over 500,000 emails from over 50 countries have come into the various UN missions in support of the US amendment.
In her statement to the UN Commission on the Status of Women March 2, Ambassador Sauerbrey was clear that the US concerns over abortion remained. “As colleagues in this meeting know, the United States has had concerns about efforts to mischaracterize the outcome documents of Beijing and Beijing+5 in creation of new international rights. It is clear that there was no intent on the part of States supporting the Beijing documents to create new rights . . . including the right to abortion,” she said.
She added, “The United States recognizes the International Conference on Population and Development principle that abortion policies are a matter of national sovereignty. And, we are pleased that so many other governments have indicated their agreement with this position.”
US Abortion Amendment to UN Beijing +10 Document Fails to Achieve Consensus – Update to previous story
UNITED NATIONS — On March 3, LifeSiteNews.com learned that the proposed US amendment, to clarify that the UN Beijing +5 Document and Platform for Action do not propose abortion rights, did not achieve consensus at an informal negotiation meeting in the afternoon. LifeSiteNews.com sources on the scene have revealed that the measure represents a pro-life victory nonetheless, since the vast majority of countries reiterated during the meeting that in their view the UN documents did not confer new rights to abortion, and thus the amendment was unnecessary.
The bickering over the proposal also exposed the fact that Canada and several European nations would like to interpret the documents as conferring an international right to abortion. However, that interpretation was soundly rejected by the majority of nations. In fact, according to LifeSiteNews.com sources, Ms. Kyung-wha Kang of Korea, the Chairperson of the current 49th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, confirmed during the meeting that the Beijing documents created no new international rights nor the right to abortion.
U.S. Ambassador Ellen Sauerbrey, head of the U.S. delegation, “It is clear that there was no intent on the part of States supporting the Beijing documents to create new rights . . . including the right to abortion.”
She added, “The United States recognizes the International Conference on Population and Development principle that abortion policies are a matter of national sovereignty. And we are pleased that so many other governments have indicated their agreement with this position, and we anticipate that we can now focus clearly on addressing the many urgent needs of women around the world.”
(This update courtesy of LifeSiteNews.com.)
