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US loses abortion vote at UN population meeting
By Associated Press, 12/18/2002
The vote was held at the end of the UN-sponsored Asian and Pacific Population Conference, which adopted a plan of action on population policies in a bid to reduce poverty in the region.
US delegates had said some of the wording, including ''reproductive health services'' and ''reproductive rights,'' could be read as advocating abortion and underage sex. But US demands for changes or deletions were overwhelmingly rejected.
''We wanted a development oriented conference, but the issue we had a heated debate on was abortion and underage sex,'' said Kim Hak-Su, executive secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
The fifth Asian and Pacific Population conference was attended by member nations of the UN economic commission, including the United States, India, Pakistan, and China, as well as several activist organizations.
Delegates said the ministerial meetings were often heated, with the United States seeking to pressure other countries.
Faced with a deadlock, the conference took a vote - highly unusual at United Nations conferences - on two key chapters of the plan. The United States lost the first vote 31-1 with two abstentions, and the second 32-1 with two abstentions.
The United States ended up agreeing on the plan being adopted without change, said Thoraya Obaid, executive director of the UN Population Fund. Its concerns were attached in a separate document that will not affect the plan.
''By joining the consensus they were part of the whole group. It is not loss or gain. It is multilateralism,'' she said.
The 22-page plan includes a series of recommended steps to implement an international family planning agreement reached in Cairo in 1994. It suggested fighting poverty by concentrating on 12 areas, including family planning, gender equality, and combatting HIV/AIDS.
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