Pro-Abortionist Attempt to Hijack Women Deliver Conference
Part One of Two

Editor's note. Part Two of TN&V for Wednesday picks up on the discussion begun yesterday that examined the remarkable program aired October 17 by Great Britain's Channel 4.
Please send your thoughts to daveandrusko@hotmail.com.

The act of abortion not only sucks the life out of an unborn child, its proponents, if unchecked, will drain the life out of even the most forward thinking initiatives. A just-ended three-day conference in England reminds us yet again that the pro-death forces NEVER sleep and will ALWAYS attempt to hijack any and all United Nations' initiatives

Who could or would object to the objectives of the Women Deliver conference--reducing the scandalously high maternal mortality and morbidity rate? Reducing maternal mortality by three-quarters by 2015 was one of the eight UN Millennium Development Goals set by 189 countries in 2000.

However, according to a report just released by the WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, and the World Bank, progress towards this goal is so slow that, unless the pace is markedly picked up, the goal will not be attained

But no sooner had the London conference adjourned than a coalition of nongovernmental organizations (NGO's) from the United States, Europe, and Latin America delivered a letter to the UN and the organizers expressing their "profound disappointment and dismay that the Women Deliver conference has failed to meet its stated objective of addressing Millennium Development Goal 5, which is to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity."

The signers noted that "Delegates were invited to attend a global conference on the causes, prevention and treatment of the complications of pregnancy and childbirth which lead to the deaths of so many mothers, particularly in developing countries, and to consider effective solutions."

But "Regrettably, the conference agenda was so preoccupied with promoting the ideology and practice of abortion that the genuine healthcare needs of women and children were virtually ignored in the plenary sessions and overwhelmed in the panel discussions."

The joint letter was issued by the American Association of Prolife Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), MaterCare International (MCI), World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations (FIAMC), the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM), United Families International (US), Concerned Women for America (US), World Union of Catholic Women's Organizations, Institute for Family Policy (Spain), Instituto Mujer y Vida (Spain), Comite Nacional Provida de Mexico, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (UK), and many others.

As is so often the case, a preoccupation with abortion was built into the conference, attended by some 1,700 people. The sponsors included a virtual "who's who" of major abortion providers-- International Planned Parenthood Federation and Marie Stopes International--as well as the usual United Nations suspects-- the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), UNICEF, and the World Health Organization.

The letter protested that it was taken as a given that "'unsafe abortions' are only those that are illegal," implying "that legal abortion is therefore safe". But this "is both disingenuous and scientifically flawed," they wrote.

Numerous UN reports "have concluded that accurate data about maternal mortality, including abortion, are not available, especially for the developing world," the letter explained. "Therefore, the presentation of unsubstantiated and unreliable data on illegal abortion as fact can only be seen as a deliberate attempt to mislead the conferees and the international community."

It cannot be emphasized too much what was lost by the misplaced priorities of the conference sponsors. Placing such inordinate and unjustified emphasis on abortion meant that the conference "sidelined the main issues related to maternal mortality (basic health conditions based on vaccine availability, clean water, sanitation, basic nutritional supplementation, primary medical post-natal and peri-natal care, fistula, female genital mutilation, hemorrhage, sepsis, obstructed labor, and eclipse," the letter explained. "Such sidelining is a serious act of negligence which leads not only to continuing, but increasing, the risks associated with maternal health."

"I was excited to hear that a world conference was at last being held that appeared to be finally focusing on addressing the real causes of maternal mortality," said Jeanne Head, R.N., National Right to Life's representative at the UN and a member of the NRLC executive committee. "After all, how could a conference called 'Women Deliver' be even discussing abortion as a solution. Tragically, I was wrong."

Head, whose specialty was obstetrics, added, "Again the women of the developing world are being used to promote a political agenda at a very high cost--death. In the developed world, we have known how to save the lives of women having babies for over 50 years, long before any legalization of abortion."

Head concluded, "It is a crime that women in the developing world are still waiting for the same kind of maternal health care and that a conference like this diverts attention from their real needs."

Please send your comments and questions to Dave Andrusko at daveandrusko@hotmail.com.

Part Two