Abortion access will ensure “a healthy life and well-being”? What we said and heard at the consultations held before the UN Commission’s session

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• Ordo Iuris (OI) experts participated in informal consultations which were held before the 58th session of the UN Commission on Population and Development, whose theme is “ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages”.

• OI representatives stressed the need to protect the family as the legal institution that best ensures the well-being of women and children, and called for the sovereignty of nation-states to be respected in matters of public health.

• The meeting was nevertheless dominated by organizations promoting so-called reproductive and sexual rights. Many of their representatives focused on demands for universal access to abortion and sex education in all countries.

• The meeting’s agenda was mainly restricted to presenting the positions of individual organizations. There was no room for substantive debate.

• The Ordo Iuris Institute plans to participate in further consultations on the draft resolution regarding this issue, which will most likely be approved in March.

The Center for Reproductive Rights, for example, asserted during this consultation that providing universal access to abortion is crucial for fighting poverty and social inequality, among other things. According to this organization, being able to decide whether to have children or not makes it easier for women to plan their professional and personal lives, which in turn translates into improvements in their financial and health conditions.

The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) has also repeatedly criticized Poland's pro-life laws, alleging that they have a negative impact on women's lives and health. Significantly, though, the organization even considers the abortion laws currently in force in some Western European countries to be “restrictive”. For example, the organization's website states that “in the Netherlands, only doctors can perform abortions. Before the procedure, they must provide the pregnant woman with information on alternatives to abortion. Although the pregnant person must be in an 'emergency situation,' it is up to her to decide whether an abortion is necessary to resolve it. The doctor must make sure that the pregnant woman has voluntarily made this decision, considering her ‘responsibility for unborn life.’ According to this law, the doctor can proceed with this procedure only if it is justified based on his findings (...). In the Netherlands, the law states that abortions can only be performed in a hospital or clinic that holds a special license for this purpose (...).” Regulations that require informing a woman of an abortion’s possible effects on her health, or simply ensuring that a woman is confident in her decision to kill her unborn child and thus take responsibility for an unborn life, are restrictive – at least according to the CRR.

The Center for Reproductive Rights further calls for the legalization and full decriminalization of abortion in all countries, regardless of their particular national laws, as it considers abortion to be a basic human right. Its recommendations also emphasize the need for a moratorium on the use of laws criminalizing abortion and a halt to all investigations and prosecutions of those who provide abortions. The organization likewise calls for offering sex education as well as access to contraception universally.

Experts from the Ordo Iuris Institute noted that these assertions and demands are not supported by research, nor are they provided for in international law; in fact, they actually contradict the latter. As stipulated in a number of international legal regulations, abortion should not be promoted as a method of family planning. These regulations include the Report of the International Conference on Population and Development that was adopted in Cairo in 1994 (Section 8.25). This act also recognized that it is governments that should take appropriate steps to help women avoid abortions.

Referring to the provisions of the Cairo Conference, the United Nations General Assembly resolution (A/S-21/5/Add.1) reiterated: “In no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning [...] Any measures or changes related to abortion within the health system can only be determined at the national or local level according to the national legislative process. [...]” (Item 63-I).

A year later, at the Fourth World Conference on Women, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (A/CONF.177/20 Beijing, China, September 4-15, 1995) reiterated, “In no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning.” (Item 106-K).

Ordo Iuris’ experts called during these consultations held before the 58th session of the UN Commission on Population and Development (as well as in the form of numerous opinions that have been drafted for the UN) for the need to put topics pertaining to the actual protection of health and well-being of families on the organization's agenda. OI plans to vigorously participate in the draft resolution’s next consultations, which will take place in March. This document could very well be crucial for shaping global policy on public health and social development. Ordo Iuris intends to monitor the process by which the final text is prepared for the 58th session of the UN Commission on Population and Development, and it seeks to ensure that these international policies respect family rights and the protection of life at all stages.

As in previous years, the debate on the controversial issues surrounding so-called reproductive and sexual health is becoming one of the main points of contention at the UN. This worldwide organization is choosing to focus on this topic rather than the many serious problems affecting our planet, such as global poverty – something that has nothing to do with access to abortion. Some countries  – such as Argentina and Poland last year, for example – as well as pro-life NGOs are insisting that such issues as abortion should be left to the sovereign states and should be dealt with through their particular legal and cultural frameworks.

“Once again, we are seeing how the debate over supposed reproductive rights is obscuring real global challenges, such as fighting poverty, providing access to basic health care, and improving the living conditions of families,” stressed Julia Książek of the Ordo Iuris International Law Center. “Contrary to the position of many countries and the provisions of international law, the UN is increasingly becoming a space for pushing controversial demands that undermine the sovereignty of nations in shaping health policy.”

With this in mind, the Ordo Iuris Institute will soon launch a broad campaign to include new partner institutions from Africa and Latin America in its work at the UN. Initial discussions at the Atlantic Summit in Madrid and at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference in London have demonstrated that many conservative organizations need this kind of support in order for their voices to be heard at the UN  – and thus for the balance to be restored there.