Feminists Groups Criticize UN on Gender Ideology and Surrogacy

By | August 22, 2024

WASHINGTON, D.C. August 23 (C-Fam) Feminist groups have recently written two open letters criticizing UN agencies for their promotion of surrogacy. They have further complained about being called “anti-rights” for opposing gender ideology.

The Women’s Liberation Front, Women’s Declaration International, RadFem Italia, and other allied groups took UN Women to task for its statements denouncing “anyone who does not uncritically support the ideology of gender identity.”

The authors express opposition to the UN agency’s use of the LGBTQI+ category, arguing that it is a form of “false teaming” spearheaded by transgender activists.  They point out the harms that women suffer when women’s-only spaces admit men.

“UN Women should support the work of women for women’s rights, not tell women that they need to place their concerns secondary to a newly declared group whose main aim is to claim women’s rights for men,” they write.

They also dispute UN Women’s claim that opposition to youth gender transitioning is a “moral panic:” “Cutting off healthy body parts of children, sterilizing them, and putting opposite sex hormones into their bodies is NOT ‘healthcare’.”

Another open letter by fifty international feminist groups was sent to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), criticizing their recent use of a definition of “comprehensive family planning” to include surrogacy.

They pointed out that gestational surrogacy is incompatible with existing human rights standards, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that children have the right to know their parents, and other treaties which address the sale of children and the exploitation and trafficking of women.

“Does the inclusion of surrogacy in these reports reflect UNFPA’s official position on legalization of surrogacy? If so, when and how was this position established?” the authors inquire.

Both letters accuse the respective UN agencies of acting in contradiction with their mission and purpose and raise questions regarding how these apparent stances were chosen.

The anti-surrogacy letter notes that part of UNFPA’s mission is to eliminate maternal deaths, yet “[s]urrogate mothers endure high-risk pregnancies with a significantly higher rate of complications than natural pregnancies, jeopardizing their health and potentially their lives.”

While social conservative organizations have campaigned against surrogacy and transgender ideology at the UN, including by criticizing the promotion of these issues by UN agencies and experts, the coalitions behind both of these letters are self-described feminist groups, including some that specifically advocate for lesbian causes.

The divisions on these issues among feminist activists have become more stark as UN agencies have taken increasingly radical stances and become even more out of step with the agreements made in the General Assembly and other bodies that operate by negotiation and consensus.

Within the UN’s human rights office, one particular independent expert has become increasingly outspoken in her denunciation of transgenderism, pornography, and the promotion of prostitution.  The Jordanian rapporteur on the issue of violence against women, Reem Alsalem, has recently spoken out in favor of sex testing for women athletes after controversy arose regarding two competitors in Olympic women’s boxing had reportedly failed tests but were allowed to compete.

Alsalem has used her position to advocate for abortion as a right.  Nevertheless, she participated in a conference in the Vatican on the issue of surrogacy.  Pope Francis has called for its abolition and called on nations to condemn and ban the practice.

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