U.S. Wants UN to Declare That Abortion Is Not a Right

U.S. Wants UN to Declare That Abortion Is Not a Right
Mon Feb 28, 2005 07:17 PM ET
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By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The Bush administration insisted on Monday that a U.N. document on women's equality make clear that abortion is not a fundamental right and accused activists of trying to distort the issue.

Even U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his opening speech to a high-level review session of the 1995 Beijing Conference on Women, came in for criticism for using the term "sexual rights" which the U.S. delegates said was undefined.

"There is no fundamental right to abortion," said Ellen Sauerbrey, the U.S. delegate to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, which is running the review.

"And yet it keeps coming up largely driven by NGOs (nongovernmental groups) trying to hijack the term and trying to make it into a definition," she told a news conference. She would not name any of the activist groups.

The U.N. meeting, with at least 100 government delegations, 80 ministers from Afghanistan to Peru, and some 6,000 advocates of women's rights, was called to review progress since the landmark global conference in Beijing 10 years ago.

Rather than producing a lengthy document, the organizers decided to keep controversies in check by writing a short declaration that reaffirms and pledges implementation of the 150-page platform of action agreed in Beijing.

But, to the dismay of European and some Latin American delegates, the United States submitted amendments, declaring that the Beijing conference did not create "new international human rights" and did not include the right to abortion.

In Beijing, abortion was treated as a health issue, with the 150-page platform saying it should be safe where it was legal and criminal action should not be taken against women who underwent the procedure.

The Bush administration does not disagree with this position but has instituted a variety of policies to make sure any U.S. foreign assistance is not used for abortions.

Sauerbrey referred to "sexual rights" which she said were undefined and one reason the U.S. amendments opposed any new international rights. She noted Annan had used the term.

Annan, in his address, said governments had to "guarantee sexual and reproductive health and rights," noting that half a million women die of pregnancy-related causes every year. Continued ...

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