US clarifies "reproductive health" goal in UN documents

US clarifies "reproductive health" goal in UN documents
New York, Sep. 23 (C-fam.org/CWNews.com)

New York, Sep. 23 (C-fam.org/CWNews.com) - The US delegation to the UN has issued an official "explanation of position" clarifying the American understanding of references to "reproductive health" in the Millennium Development Summit document, the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (C-Fam) reports.

The US statement, delivered by American ambassador John Bolton, specifies that "reproductive health" should be understood in the context of previous statements produced by UN conferences in Cairo and Beijing, which said that the UN endorsements of that term "do not create any rights and cannot be interpreted to constitute support, endorsement, or promotion of abortion."

The US delegation insisted on including the "Explanation of Position" along with the latest UN document because some other delegations have sought to interpret the term "reproductive health" as including access to legal abortion.

In fact, C-Fam pointed out, the International Planned Parenthood Federation claimed a victory in the Millennium Development Summit, since the US had accepted the goal of "universal access to reproductive health." C-Fam notes that Planned Parenthood officials clearly saw that goal as including access to abortion--unaware that the US delegation would explicitly repudiate that understanding with the "Explanation of Position."

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