Senators May Vote on Pro-Abortion Treaty

WASHINGTON (August 6, 2002) The U.S. Senate may vote this fall on a treaty to ban broadly defined "discrimination" against women a treaty that has been interpreted to condemn any limitations on abortion.

On July 30, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 12 to 7 to recommend that the full Senate ratify a treaty called the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) (pronounced "SEE-daw").

The full Senate could vote on the treaty as early as September. Democrats currently hold majority control in the Senate by a single seat, 51-49. Nearly all of the chamber's Democrats have endorsed the CEDAW. However, many Republican senators (and a few Democrats) have never taken a position on it.

It would require a two-thirds vote to ratify the treaty, or 67 senators (if every senator votes). According to The New York Times (July 31), "Treaty supporters said their initial vote counts indicated that they were still at least 3 votes shy of 67. Some Democrats said that if ratification was not assured, they would not want to bring the treaty to the floor this fall."

NRLC strongly opposes ratification of CEDAW because it has been construed by U.N. agencies, by the European Parliament, and by pro-abortion litigators in the United States to be inconsistent with any limitations on abortion.

While the CEDAW does not mention the word "abortion," it explicitly obligates ratifying nations to ensure equal access to "health care services, including those related to family planning," and says that parties shall ensure that men and women have "the same rights to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children." These and other provisions have been construed by various official bodies to condemn any type of restriction on abortion, on grounds that any restrictions on abortion are by definition discrimination against women.

This definition of "sex discrimination" condemns any limits on abortion, including parental involvement laws regarding minors, limits on late-term abortions, and laws recognizing the right of health-care providers to refuse to participate in abortions, because all such laws "apply only to women."

As recently as July 3, the European Parliament narrowly voted to adopt a sweeping report calling for removal of all limitations to abortion by current European Union members such as Ireland, Spain and Portugal, and by nations seeking membership, such as Poland and Malta. The report cited CEDAW as grounds for its assertion that there is an "international legal framework" under which all European Union nations should recognize abortion as a " fundamental right."

Ratification of the treaty is supported by the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL), Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, and other such groups. These groups recognize that the CEDAW would be a powerful new weapon for advancing their agenda of so-called "reproductive rights."

The International Planned Parenthood Federation published a color wall chart purporting to show "how signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women are measuring up" on "reproductive rights," a large portion of which was devoted to a world map rating countries according to what types of limits they placed on abortion.

However, some of the most compelling evidence of the CEDAW- abortion connection has been provided by the official UN committee, created by the convention itself, that is responsible for promoting compliance with the treaty's requirements. This committee has issued specific criticisms of numerous nations, including Ireland and Mexico, for maintaining policies to limit abortion.

In 1998, the committee criticized Croatia for "the refusal, by some hospitals, to provide abortions on the basis of conscientious objection of doctors. The committee considers this to be an infringement of a woman's reproductive right."

(The U.N. CEDAW committee has also issued controversial reports on other issues for example, in 1999, urging China to decriminalize prostitution, and in 2000, criticizing Belarus for promoting "a Mother's Day," thereby "encouraging women's traditional roles.")

The "resolution of ratification" approved by the Senate committee on July 30 contains language expressing an "understanding" that the treaty does not "reflect or create any right to abortion," but this is a mere sham, because such an "understanding" has no effect on the international legal obligations that would be placed on the United States if CEDAW is ratified.

Pro-life Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC), the ranking Republican on the committee, said in a letter, "There can be no doubt that CEDAW supporters are attempting to use this treaty to advance a radical abortion agenda."

Helms was unable to attend the July 30 committee meeting because he is recuperating from heart surgery, but he vowed to be back in time to lead the opposition if the treaty is brought to the Senate floor joining pro-life Senator Sam Brownback (R-Ks.), who forcefully raised the abortion issue in committee.

In the weeks prior to the July 30 committee vote, officials of the State Department, National Security Council, and Justice Department sent letters to Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden (D-De.), saying that the Administration wanted more time to study the legal requirements of the treaty, and urging him not to proceed with the vote.

In a July 26 letter to Biden, Assistant Attorney General Daniel J. Bryant cited various decrees of the U.N. committee and noted that Biden's ratification resolution failed to "address whether other interpretive bodies, whether foreign, international, or indeed, domestic, could adopt similarly bizarre interpretations of CEDAW's vague text, or what deference, if any, these bodies would accord the official U.N. implementation committee." (The entire letter is posted at www.nrlc.org/Federal/ForeignAid/CEDAWDOJ.pdf)

But Biden rejected these pleas for postponement, explaining that any further delay would not allow enough time for the full Senate to consider the treaty this year.

All ten of the committee's Democrats voted to recommend ratification of the treaty: Biden, Barbara Boxer (Ca.), Christopher Dodd (Ct.), Russell Feingold (Wi.), John Kerry (Mass.), Bill Nelson (Fl.), John Rockefeller (WV), Paul Sarbanes (Md.), Robert Torricelli (NJ), and Paul Wellstone (Mn.). They were joined in support by Republicans Lincoln Chafee (RI) and Gordon Smith (Or.).

The other seven Republicans on the committee voted against ratification: George Allen (Va.), Brownback, Michael Enzi (Wy.), Bill Frist (Tn.), Chuck Hagel (Ne.), Helms, and Richard Lugar (In.).

History of CEDAW

As President Carter was leaving office in 1980, he signed the treaty and submitted it to the Senate, but the full Senate has never voted on whether to ratify it. Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush did not seek ratification. President Clinton supported the treaty, and in 1994 the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to recommend passage, but the Senate leadership never brought it to the floor for a vote that year.

The Republicans regained control of the Senate in the 1994 election, which made Sen. Helms, a strong opponent of CEDAW, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. He held that position until May, 2001, when Sen. James Jeffords (Vt.) resigned from the Republicans and voted to give the Democrats majority status. That made Senator Joseph Biden (D-De.), a strong CEDAW supporter, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.