Pro-Life Optimism Abounds at Women’s Commission

By and Rebecca Oas, Ph.D. | 2026

UNITED NATIONS March 13 (C-Fam) There is a spirit of optimism and momentum among conservative advocates gathered at the annual UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). This optimism has been bolstered by the U.S.’s leadership at the UN this week, both in negotiations and in participation in side events with civil society.

For the third year in a row, the pro-life and pro-family coalition hosted a two-day conference near the UN, where speakers addressed packed rooms about the importance of family, motherhood, defending the unborn, and the dangers of gender ideology.  The U.S. sponsored five of the events at the Conference on the State of Women and Family (CSWF), and the government of Burundi sponsored two others.

The harm of transgender ideology to women and children was a frequent theme. Representatives of the Trump administration discussed recent executive measures to ban sex-rejecting surgeries and hormones for minors.

Bethany Kozma, Director of Global Affairs at the US Department of Health and Human Services, said, “Parents should never be dismissed when raising concerns about what children are being taught. Families are the first and most important institution in any society.”

Chris Elston, a Canadian known as “Billboard Chris,” spoke about his efforts to educate the public about the harms and his fight against pediatric “gender affirming care,” which he called “the greatest child abuse scandal in the history of modern medicine.”

“In the name of inclusivity, and acceptance, and diversity, we are sterilizing children and sending teenage girls into menopause with its side effects of its own,” Elston continued, adding, “Puberty blockers are not reversible because time is not reversible.”

Elson rejected controversial narratives suggesting children are born in the wrong bodies. Instead, Elson emphasized that there is no right or wrong way to be a boy or a girl, that there are “two sexes, zero genders, and infinite personalities.”

Former college swimmer Paula Scanlan shared her story of having to share a locker room with a female-identified male teammate, while Amie Ichikawa, who spent time in a women’s prison, spoke about the dangers of housing biological men—some of them sex offenders—alongside vulnerable incarcerated women.

At a separate event at the mission of Nigeria, UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, spoke on the danger and the “dehumanizing” effect of erasing women as a “material, distinct category in law but also in reality” through gender-neutral terminology or definitions of “women” that include men.  Alsalem mentioned that in some countries, the “official statistics of female sexual offenders or female rapists have jumped by 700%” because statistical bureaus now classify some biological males as females.

An event by the International Youth Coalition (a program of C-Fam, publisher of the Friday Fax) featured young leaders in the international pro-life movement.  A young mother and lawyer from Costa Rica shared how her family was a source of joy and meaning, and not a barrier to her professional advancement.  A young leader from Students for Life USA discussed his visits to college campuses, helping to start pro-life groups, and encouraging young leaders to find the confidence to find each other and speak out.

The CSWF conference was originally launched after conservative groups were repeatedly denied space for events by the “official” CSW civil society parallel event platform.  Its events draw crowds of like-minded advocates and volunteers, delegates from foreign capitals and missions, as well as some critics who call its message “antithetical to gender equality.”

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