Nikki Haley Signals Change of Direction for USUN
The Pro-life cause may get a reprieve at the United Nations thanks to the Trump administration during the Commission on the Status of Women, following several years of poundings from the pro-abortion Obama administration.
“During this council on women we are going to see many divisions between us,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said, seemingly warning of a change of direction from the Trump administration in her statement to the commission on Thursday last week.
Haley omitted a mention of “sexual and reproductive health” or “reproductive rights” from her statement, something that would have not happened during the Obama administration. Governments that promote abortion do so either explicitly or by using these euphemisms.
Abortion is a principal subject of contention at the annual UN Commission in debates, events, and negotiations, alongside the most avant garde and controversial social policies. The commission’s theme this year is “economic empowerment of women in the workplace.”
Haley appeared undaunted during her statement, and even extolled British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
She asked UN member states to “remember the basic core of women’s rights” of providing women and girls with safety, resources, opportunities, and the ability to have a voice. “Those are the issues we should talk about” she said in unwritten remarks centered on her own inspiring story as daughter of Indian immigrants.
Haley’s remarks will have raised alarm bells for abortion and LGBT groups already on high alert.
Trump’s policies “are expected to embolden right-wing conservative groups seeking to undermine women’s rights” at the annual gathering of the world’s femminists, wrote Liz Ford last week in the week in the Guardian—a left leaning UK daily that channels the views of abortion and LGBT groups on the margins of the Commission each year.
This year they are especially worried because of the Mexico City Policy, which cuts U.S. funding to abortion groups. Surprisingly, it isn’t just abortion groups that are targeting the Trump administration for adopting this policy.
This month, over 40 governments pledged roughly $200 million to bailout abortion groups who stand to lose U.S. funding under the Mexico City Policy, deceptively describing the policy as a cut to U.S. funding for women’s health.
New Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, whowas voiced to be pro-life when he assumed his post early this year aimed veiled jabs at the Trump administration for cutting U.S. funding to abortions through the Mexico City Policy
During a townhall meeting with femminists last Friday he echoed statements he made in February about “backlash” against “sexual and reproductive rights.” Since funding for sexual and reproductive health has increased exponentially in recent years, he could have only been referring to the Mexico City Policy.
Guterres said ensuring such rights was “essential for the “welfare of society” and also described it as a matter of “equilibrium.” He also emphasized the importance of “reproductive health” in his remarks to the Commission this week.
The pro-life cause will not experience a true requite unless both Trump and Guterres are deliberate and systematic in promoting pro-life policy and personnel, as well as rolling back gains that abortion groups made during the Obama years.
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