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United Nations Archives – Concerned Women for America

Defending National Sovereignty for the Unborn

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Pro-abortion groups recently sent a letter calling on United Nations (UN) officials to take action in response to America’s “violation of its obligations under international human rights law” for not having a constitutional right to abortion. Protections for the unborn, according to signatories, are a “human rights crisis.” This letter is a reminder that defense of national sovereignty is vital in a landscape where international bodies are being lobbied and used to push a pro-abortion agenda. No international organization should have authority over our country in any area, much less in mandating policies that destroy lives.

 

Unfortunately, there is already a bias within the UN against protections for the unborn. UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet called the outcome in the U.S. Supreme Court decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which returned the question of abortion policy to the people, “a huge blow to women’s human rights and gender equality.” At that time, the UN women’s rights committee “reiterated its call for States parties to remove punitive measures for women who undergo abortion and to legalize abortion – at least in cases of rape, incest, threats to the life or health of the pregnant woman, and in the case of severe [fetal] impairment.”

 

The UN touts Bachelet and the committee as “rights experts.” Yet the so-called “experts” seem to have their heads in the sand about what both sides are really saying about the abortion debate.

 

There are no punitive measures—certainly not criminal measures—against women who obtain an abortion in the United States. Our President and CEO, Penny Nance, has only spoken with truth and love about women who have suffered abortion, most recently in front of a nationally broadcast audience at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC). And pro-life groups, including Concerned Women for America, universally call for protections for the unborn who fall outside of the listed exceptions. Those unborn lives are the vast majority of children killed in abortions.

 

On the other hand, as the letter evidences, many on the pro-abortion side want abortion under any circumstance. The dignity and worth of the unborn child is totally irrelevant. Girls and women indisputably suffer from criminal attacks and maladies like post-partum depression. But abortion access is demanded in every circumstance, and the suffering that results from abortion is unacknowledged.

 

One might wonder why the UN takes the positions it does when America foots most of the bill. In 2020, America contributed over 11 billion dollars to the UN. It seems like the UN’s priorities and America’s priorities are so often at odds. Bizarrely, most if not all of the signatories are from America. It seems to boil down to a desire to take the easy route of appealing to an unaccountable international body rather than do the hard work of changing fellow Americans’ hearts and minds. It is a call for policy by fiat and no consent from the governed.

 

Sadly, the U.S. is responsible for its own pressure on foreign governments to support anti-life, anti-family, and anti-woman policies. At a Summit for Democracy, the Biden Administration explicitly linked so-called LGBTQI+ “rights” to democracy, and President Biden called for the elimination of the filibuster in order to pass a law to practically undo the outcome in Dobbs. The U.S. Department of State’s annual human rights report includes sections on sexual orientation/gender identity mandates and abortion access. The U.S. Agency for International Development has recommended training for educators funded to teach in foreign countries “to model the use of inclusive language (i.e., names, pronouns, descriptors)” with information about “diverse sexual orientations and gender identities.” The U.S. State Department awarded one of its “International Women for Courage Awards” to a male.

 

At a panel event this week for International Women’s Day, German Ambassador Emily Haber was asked to speak about differences in pay between men and women of Germany. She was asked if she observed any policies in Germany that America should apply. She explained,

 

“There’s a conversation to be had about [fair pay]. But I wouldn’t give any advice or wouldn’t, as I said before, lecture anyone. We all come from our specific vantage points, experiences, societal and political traditions. Whatever we do will have to fit into it. As we pursue the same objectives . . . we’ll have to have the conversation on how best to do it. There is not one single panacea to move ahead.”

 

This is a refreshing perspective for issues that are debatable, like economic policy. How much more must we forbear on exporting to other countries ideas that undebatably lead to harm and destruction. But as the letter shows, and as we have seen from the Biden Administration, not everyone is on the same page.

 

World Health Organization Promotes Abortion on Demand

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Earlier this month, the World Health Organization (WHO), ignoring that the so-called right to abortion does not exist within international law, released its new guidelines on abortion. Self-management abortion and telemedicine are their recommendations “to keep women and girls safe.”

According to their press release, abortion is an “extremely safe procedure when it is carried out using the method recommended by WHO, the UN agency.” One of these methods is using a “combination of mifepristone plus misoprostol or misoprostol.”

Despite the fact that WHO is an institution whose focus is supposed to be on health, it does not step back from making recommendations to policymakers—asking them to remove barriers to safe abortion, barriers such as the criminalization of abortion, mandatory waiting times, or the need for the parents to give their approval, among others. They also recommend “over-the-counter emergency contraceptive pills, without prescription to individuals who wish to use emergency contraception.”

Sadly, these new guidelines from the WHO are clear evidence that the UN and its institutions do not care about women and girls. It is not news that abortion, like any other medical procedure, presents a risk. This risk could increase when it is done without a proper medical evaluation. The pro-abortion agenda of the WHO seems to matter more than the safety of women and girls.

The Lozier Institute and its report “The Evolution of ‘Self-Managed’ Abortion: Does the Safety of Women Seeking Abortion Even Matter Anymore” presents a study in which one out of five women who had a chemical abortion presented complications and required surgery. Accordingly, with this study, the rates of complications for a medical abortion vs. surgical abortion are four times higher.[1]

Other risk factors for “self-managed” abortion are infections, hemorrhaging, pelvic inflammatory disease, mental health complications, etc. Still, the WHO has ignored this information and is now promoting abortion on demand. The WHO is also demanding that countries make abortion services affordable for women. In other words, they require that abortion be publicly funded and free so the cost will not be a burden.[2]

The U.S. government is the number one donor to the WHO, followed by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation[3]. This means that our tax dollars are promoting these outrageous recommendations.

Abortion hurts women and girls, and ultimately it hurts us as a society. We must continue to defend the unborn and stand for women and girls who sadly are misled by institutions like WHO. Our government must be held accountable for having a part in the misinformation.  


[1] Ingrid Skop, The Evolution of Self-Managed Abortion: Does the safety of Women Seeking Abortion Even Matter Anymore? Charlotte Lozier Institute (March 1, 2021) https://lozierinstitute.org/the-evolution-of-self-managed-abortion/#_edn11

[2] As part of an enabling environment, considerations of gender equality, human rights and equity should guide the
design of health financing policy to reduce if not eliminate the financial barriers for the most vulnerable, and to
ensure equitable access to good-quality services (93). The CEDAW Committee has described fees for abortion
as being burdensome to women’s informed choice and autonomy (94, para. 37). Where user fees are charged
for abortion, this should be based on careful consideration of ability to pay, and fee waivers should be available
for those who are facing financial hardship and adolescent abortion seekers. World Health Organization, Abortion care guideline, (2022) https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/349316/9789240039483-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

[3] https://www.who.int/about/funding/contributors/usa

The State of Religious Liberty Across Our Nation

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Concerned Women for America (CWA) Vice President of International Affairs Neydy Casillas will be featured on an important discussion of religious liberty, alongside a distinguished group of panelists including, CWA favorite, Ambassador Sam Brownback, who served as U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom from February 2018 to January 2021.

The panel will discuss the current state of religious liberty across our nation, the challenges, and the opportunities to ensure the constitutional right of every citizen to live their faith in the public square.

Click here to register. Details below:

 

The UN Wants to Deliver Abortion to People Starving To Death

By | International, National Sovereignty, News and Events, Sanctity of Life | No Comments

In her latest piece in The Federalist, our Vice President of International Affairs, Neydy Casillas, Esq., decries the UN’s support of radical left-leaning policies. Instead of focusing on critical issues including proper healthcare, it is ignoring reality and supporting abortion advocates’ fantasies. The UN is neglecting people around the world’s basic needs for the sake of affirming life-threatening radical policies.

From the article: “The UN and its ‘experts’ are preoccupied with ensuring that countries will continue killing babies around the globe and delivering hormones and sex-change surgeries without caring how these services are performed.”

We must reject these progressive stances in order to restore and better peoples’ quality of life.

Read the full piece here.