FRIDAY FAX

September 17, 2004
Volume 7, Number 39

UNFPA Report Claims Reproductive Rights Still Key to Development

In a seeming effort to remain relevant in light of plunging
worldwide fertility rates, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) released a
report this week stating that the earth’s environmental future remains
threatened by population growth, a reality that it claims can only be
addressed by UNFPA’s increased provision of contraceptives and
abortifacients.

The report, entitled “State of the World Population 2004,” also
argues that the work of UNFPA is still essential in meeting current
international development goals, despite the agency’s failure to stem
maternal mortality and AIDS rates in the developing world.

Regarding abortion, the report appears to endorse the legalization
of abortion, praising the fact that “open discussion…on the circumstances
when abortion might be permissible has grown” throughout the world. It
also claims that, “The social taboos surrounding abortion and the
penalties for both women who seek abortions and those who provide them are
further challenges in many countries.”

The report reiterates UNFPA’s support for emergency contraception,
without mentioning that emergency contraception sometimes works by
stopping an already-conceived human embryo from implanting in the uterus,
thereby acting as an abortifacient.

The report claims that, even where reproductive health services
“are available, adolescents may face barriers, including…family
opposition.” The report goes on to praise countries that have overcome
parental authority, such as Papua New Guinea, where a new law ensures that
“adolescents over age 16 can access reproductive health services without
parental consent.”

UNFPA admits that AIDS has not been brought under control, noting
that, “Despite expanding prevention activities, some 5 million new
infections are occurring each year.” However, the report then goes on to
endorse policies that have not worked, most notably “promoting the correct
and consistent use of condoms…” UNFPA appears more concerned with
dispelling the “pervasive myths, misperceptions and fears about condoms”
that may “inhibit their use” than in promoting abstinence and sexual
fidelity, the only strategies that have shown significant results in
sub-Saharan Africa.

The report also admits that, “Tragically, despite progress in some
countries, the global number of deaths per year – estimated at 529,000, or
one every minute – has not changed significantly since” 1994, even though
UNFPA has long trumpeted its role as the lead international agency in
addressing this issue.

The only country that is criticized in the report is the United
States, which it claims has attempted to destroy worldwide consensus
because of the “administration’s political opposition to some aspects of
reproductive health.” The report finds reason to praise China, since
“China has seen a dramatic drop in the incidence of poverty” due to its
decreased fertility. The report does not mention that this fertility
decline is the result of draconian population laws that include forced
abortions and sterilizations.

Copyright 2004 – C-FAM (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute).
Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required.