REALity August, 2018 Ottawa, ON
Since the UN conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994, the feminists have tried mightily to make abortion an international human right. They have raised this constantly at every single UN meeting since that time. However, with a few minor exceptions, (“sexual and reproductive rights” i.e. abortion, has been inserted in a few documents), they have been singularly unsuccessful in achieving their objective. This has been due mainly to the outstanding work of pro-life/pro-family groups working at the UN. Their commitment, determination, and understanding of the UN procedures have prevented the disastrous abortion/homosexual policies being foisted on the world through the UN.
REAL Women has done everything within its means to assist our pro-family friends at the UN. We have sent REAL Women representatives to these UN meetings many times, as well as cooperating in other ways with this work.
It is significant that there are only about 30 of the 193 members of the UN who are a part of the pro-abortion, anti-family coalition pushing their views on the UN. The coalition includes Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Nordic Countries, Japan, Australia and, of course, Canada under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In fact, Canada has taken a prominent role in pushing for this offensive agenda.
Frustrated and embittered feminists, aided especially by Canada and Mexico, are now trying, instead, to use the Organization of American States (OAS) as the tool by which they can hammer the UN on the abortion/homosexual issues. That is, if the 35 OAS countries accept these controversial policies, then the push by the pro-abortion coalition at the UN will be greatly strengthened.
THE OAS
The OAS consists of 35 member states in North and South America. Most of these countries have pro-life/pro-family policies. There are exceptions, such as Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela. The feminist extremists are trying to turn the OAS into a pro-abortion/homosexual organization. However, they are experiencing the same difficulty in doing so that they are experiencing at the UN as their efforts are being met with a solid wall of resistance from pro-life/family representatives and countries.
For example, on June 12, 2014, at an OAS meeting in Paraguay, the majority of member countries stated that it was impossible for them to support a resolution repealing sodomy laws. Furthermore, only four countries in North and South America have adopted same-sex marriage nationwide, Canada, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil. The majority of OAS countries have rejected this and have refused to accept it as an OAS policy.
At the OAS meeting, held in Washington, D.C. in June, 2018, at which Canada and the United States were the most influential countries, they were at odds over a draft resolution accepting “sexual and reproductive health”. Canada tried to make this resolution more explicit in favour of abortion, but the United States insisted on deletion of this controversial phrase altogether. By the end of the conference, “sexual and reproductive health” was deleted. Also deleted at this meeting was a reference to “sexual orientation and gender identity” as a category of non-discrimination. The majority of OAS members again remained firm against nations, including Canada, which promoted this policy. The defeat of this resolution was due to the influence of the United States, which absolutely refused to accept it. This represented a set-back for the anti-life, anti-family core group of nations at the OAS.
This occurred despite the fact that reproductive rights activists had organized a panel during that meeting attempting to link the democracy deficit in Latin America to the lack of abortion rights there. This panel was organized by the feminist New York based law firm, “Centre for Reproductive Rights”, which was assisted in this undertaking by International Planned Parenthood.
The panel’s agenda promoting abortion rights was undermined by the harsh reality presented by one of its panel members from the National Endowment for Democracy which apparently failed to get the memo that the panel was supposed to be about the lack of abortion in Latin America. Instead, she raised the plight of women in Venezuela. She said: “It is not a lack of reproductive health in Venezuela, but rather, a lack of maternal health care” that is the problem there. She referred to the fact that the mother-to-child HIV transmission rate has skyrocketed due to the lack of C-section capabilities. Babies are born severely malnourished to malnourished mothers as maternal death rates increase, and six women die every day from curable breast cancer. Thirty percent (30%) of households are apparently led by women, who are left to take care of children and the elderly. A reported 57% say they are not able to feed the seniors in their care. This information caused a noticeable stir at the conference. The horror of the truly tragic plight of women in Venezuela completely overshadowed the panel’s phony attempt to promote abortion rights in Latin America.
Many thanks should also be given to the US Delegation for its solid leadership at the OAS meeting in support of life and family. Its presence was the leading factor in preserving the OAS from adopting disastrous anti-life/family policies.