In Thrall to Abortion, Rich Countries Sidetrack UN Resolution on Women and Poverty

By Iulia-Elena Cazan | February 29, 2024

Group of women in India

NEW YORK, March 1 (C-Fam) Western countries are trying to shift the focus of an upcoming UN resolution away from lifting women out of poverty to promoting abortion and gender ideology agendas. Developing countries have pushed back.

Every year, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) hosts a conference-type gathering at the UN where it invites diplomats, UN personnel, and civil society for interactive dialogues and round tables on themes related to women’s equality. The session culminates with a resolution adopted by UN member states. This year progressive countries proposed a text that prioritizes abortion access and gender ideology as key determinants of women’s empowerment.

Developing countries saw this as an attempt to sidetrack a resolution that could otherwise offer real help to women by imposing a globalist progressive doctrine that ultimately undermines the national sovereignty of many member states, as well as the deeply held moral and religious beliefs of their people.

While the theme of the 68th Session of CSW is “accelerating the achievement of gender equality… by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective,” Western countries are attempting to fill the text with terms contentious to traditional countries and only remotely related to the thematic focus of the session.

The initial 11-page draft text referenced “sexual and reproductive health” (SRH), a term strategically used by Western countries to promote abortion access, seven times, including in the context of establishing programs that would teach children about abortion and sexual health. The EU and UK repeatedly asked for the inclusion of SRH language. In line with its 2024 priorities in the United Nations Human Rights fora, the EU asked for SRH in at least eight different sections of the document.

For the first time ever, the Biden administration made a direct call for the inclusion of the problematic term “sexual and reproductive health and rights,” a controversial phrase that lacks consensus and is used to promote “sexual rights.” This term is not properly defined at the UN and could be interpreted to mandate comprehensive sexuality education and include efforts to redefine norms around human sexuality. The US prioritization of abortion access and gender ideology as a way to “support” women was also reflected at a UN Women Executive Board meeting, where the board shared its commitment to the promotion of sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Developing countries, for whom this resolution is arguably the most consequential, reject this controversial narrative that unless women abort their children, they will not be able to achieve their full potential or live a good life.  They complained that the initial text lacked references to what truly matters to poor women: language on the family, for instance, and how to best support women within the family context.

Developing countries submitted comments asking for the inclusion of family-responsive social protections and family-oriented policies to  “confront family poverty and social exclusion…by…addressing the multidimensional aspects of poverty, focusing on education, health, employment, social security….” Traditional countries also asked the Commission to recognize “The social significance of maternity, motherhood…should be acknowledged and included, in the context of poverty eradication.”

Negotiations on the text are currently underway, facilitated by the Permanent Mission of the Netherlands to the UN. Member states are expected to reach a final version by the end of March.

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