UN Child Summit Negotiations Stymied Over Adolescent Abortion

The Bush administration's delegation to the United Nations is continuing its efforts to roll back radical policy initiatives undertaken during the 1990s by the Clinton administration, the European Union (EU), Canada and other like-minded states. In this week's final preparatory meetings for the Special Session of the General Assembly on Children, to be held May 8-10 in New York City, the United States delegation has fought to exclude language from the outcome document that recognizes homosexual marriage and the right of adolescents to abortion.

Much of the US's efforts have focused on the phrase "reproductive health services." In negotiations, the EU, Canada and the Latin American countries have sought to establish that children possess a "right to reproductive health services." Reproductive health services is a euphemism for abortion, a point conceded in June by the Canadian delegate, who stated that "Of course it includes, and I hate to say the word, but it includes abortion."

Since the June admission by the Canadian delegation that "reproductive health care services" means abortion, the US has insisted upon its removal from the final document. Ten months later the US still insists, despite enormous pressure from its EU allies. Key Bush constituencies remain adamant that the phrase must be removed. The negotiations are deadlocked on this point.

Peter Smith, the UN representative of International Right to Life, told the Friday Fax that "The US is doing a brilliant job" during this week's negotiations, and that "the delegation is following the administration's pro-life position wonderfully." Smith added that "The final document is to be called a 'A World Fit For Children'; the US believes that a world cannot be fit for children if it allows the world's most vulnerable children to be killed."

The US delegation is also fighting against continued efforts to redefine the family. During the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, the phrase "various forms of the family" was introduced into UN lexicon. All through the 1990s, the Clinton administration and the EU sought to include this phrase whenever the family was mentioned. It has long been the contention of pro-family nongovernmental organizations at the UN that this is an attempt to introduce homosexual marriage into international instruments. During the current negotiations, the US is seeking to delete a reference to "various forms of the family."

Finally, the US is trying to introduce a profoundly different way to address all reproductive issues, which includes the recognition of the "importance of sound value systems" and the promotion of abstinence. Pro-family groups hope that the US will place many reservations in the final document, since so much of the UN language reflects the previous administration's understanding of family and parental rights. [Reservations attached to the end of a document allow a government to define or distance itself from specific language it disagrees with.] Negotiations on the final draft continue, with negotiators hoping to finish by next Wednesday, when up to 80 heads of state descend upon UN headquarters for the final Summit.

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