The following editorial appears in the June 7, 2010 edition of The Washington Times.
Good news came from the medical community recently when the journal Lancet announced that fewer women are dying from pregnancy and childbirth. But this is bad news for reproductive rights groups gathered in Washington this week for Women Deliver, a major conference on maternal mortality. Their multiyear, high-pressure campaign, backed by the United Nations and packaged in a global gathering on maternal and child health, had banked on squeezing $30 billion more from countries – mainly the United States – to promote government-funded abortion as an international human right and a staple of national health care programs.
Nearly one-quarter of the 110 sessions deal with abortion, family planning or “reproductive rights.” A dozen more focus on ways to overcome “obstacles” to abortion rights, specifically religion and national laws. This is decidedly lopsided, considering that most maternal deaths result from hemorrhaging and sepsis.
What is troubling about these abortion activists cloaked as maternal health advocates is that they divert resources from medical interventions proven to reduce maternal mortality to their already bloated family-planning industry. And, we discovered recently, they intentionally seek to hide research that counters their goals. Think of it as Climategate meets Abortiongate. More…