NEW YORK, March 18 (C-Fam) Attendees crowded into a conference room a week ago at UN headquarters to hear expert testimony about the importance of improving women’s health without promoting abortion. The event took place during the Commission on the Status of Women, as delegates continued to debate over controversial language—including on abortion—in closed negotiations nearby.
The event, sponsored by C-Fam, the publisher of the Friday Fax, and the government of Guatemala, celebrated the Geneva Consensus Declaration, which was signed by over 30 countries, and affirms four pillars: the importance of women’s health, the family, and national sovereignty, and reiterates the fact that abortion is not an international human right.
The ambassador of Guatemala to the UN, Ms. Carla Maria Rodríguez Mancia, told the assembly that her government had just celebrated the first anniversary of the day of life and the family, when the country was declared the pro-life capital of Ibero-America.
As a political appointee of President Donald J. Trump, Valerie Huber, President of the Institute for Women’s Health, played a direct role in the establishment of the Declaration. She said, “I would like to commend all of us to think again before we put ideology over the life and health of women.”
Other panelists shared their uniquely Latin American perspectives on the pro-life movement. Neydy Casillas, Vice President for International Affairs at the Global Center for Human Rights, warned the audience about how activist courts and international bodies in the Organization of American States are pressuring countries in the region to liberalize their abortion laws, despite the lack of a legal basis for doing so. “Women in Latin American need employment, they need access to education, they need health in general,” said Casillas. “They need the means to overcome poverty. They need security.” Meanwhile, the Inter-American human rights system is being used to pressure countries to liberalize their abortion laws. “They are doing this by bypassing the legislative power.”
Ligia Briz of the Asociación La Familia Importa (AFI) talked about the successes of the pro-life movement in Guatemala, both in terms of law and policy and with regard to helping women facing crisis pregnancies with care and support. “Guatemala is a pro-life and pro-family country, not only because of its law but our DNA is like that,” said Briz. “You can see how we respect the pregnant women, the unborn children, the family, and family traditions.”
Ellen Foell, J.D., the International Program Coordinator of Heartbeat International, spoke about the tremendous impact of reaching women in crisis with emotional and practical support. Heartbeat is the world’s largest network of life-affirming organizations, serving pregnant women, mothers, orphans, and women suffering from regretted abortions in the past.
“We can agree in this room that no woman should feel so alone, she feels pressured to abort her child,” said Foell. “No woman should feel left without resources or material aid or made to feel that she has to choose between carrying her pregnancy to term and sacrificing her education, a career, or her future.”
The event had particular significance because it was the first time the Geneva Consensus Declaration was highlighted at the UN and acknowledged by governments since the text of the declaration was filed as a formal UN document.
View online at: https://c-fam.org/friday_fax/un-event-promotes-maternal-health-pro-life-consensus/
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