Women deliver - What?!

On 16-19th. May, a Women Deliver[i] Global Conference took place in Copenhagen, Denmark. The event was described by the organizers as the world´s largest conference on health, rights and the well-being of girls and women. The focus was on how to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)[ii], with a specific focus on health – in particular maternal, sexual, and reproductive health and rights – and on gender equality, education, environment, and economic empowerment[iii]. It is estimated that 5,700 people participated, including eight members of the Faroese parliament[iv].

EXPLOITING POOR WOMEN TO PUSH ABORTION RIGHTS

Anyone working for female access to education, economic equality, healthcare and freedom from violence should be applauded, however according to several observers and participants, there was an extremely disturbing element to this conference. The topic of abortion featured strongly on the agenda, both overtly and inovertly! Calls were made to have abortion that was ”safe, legal and common”! Not only that, observers say that no attempt was made to examine the arguments against abortion. Some commentators stated their shock at the false claim that abortion is a human right and good healthcare. They were also appalled at calls for the decriminalization and globalization of abortion, the complete lack of consideration of the unborn child in the womb, and the lack of information and input on the aftermath of abortion for many women.[v] [vi] [vii]

Let us be clear: abortion is NOT recognized as a human right in any international human rights doucment. [viii] [ix] [x]

Abortion is NOT healthcare. It is not reproduction: it is destruction. Abortion violently kills unborn children and hurts women. [xi] [xii] [xiii]

Furthermore, it does nothing to address the needs of women who face coercion, who lack access to information and life-affirming alternatives and/or who live in poverty and lack basic, universally recognized human rights.Numerous statistics were quoted to justify the push for abortion, yet in many poor countries, there are no organized structures and no statiistics for abortion, legal, illegal or otherwise![xiv]

In fact, other experts tell us that 90% of deaths amongst childbearing women in Africa have nothing to do with abortion, but are directly related to complications which arise within the last three months of pregnancy or within the week following birth due to such things as lack of qualified midwives, antibiotics, hæmorrghing, obstructions, sanitation and transport. [xv] [xvi] [xvii] [xviii]

WHAT WOMEN REALLY WANT AND NEED

Women, particularly poor women in Africa, articulate very well what their needs are: doctors, trained midwives, antibiotics, hospitals, clean water, sanitation, education, transport, nourishing food, mosquito nets, adequate shelter, sanitary towels and shoes!

Abortion and contraceptives are not their priority.[xix] [xx] [xxi] [xxii] As many African women point out, the introduction and importation of abortion is part of a western agenda which neither respects their culture nor meets their needs.[xxiii] [xxiv] [xxv] [xxvi]

In fact, two highly acclaimed studies: the Chile Study 2014[xxvii] and the Mexico Study 2015[xxviii] [xxix] [xxx] [xxxi] make it clear that access to qualified pre and post-natal care, education, clean water and sanitation are the most effective means of reducing female mortality, early childbirth and of helping people out of poverty. The results are particularly striking because the best results were in states with restrictive abortion laws! A forty year study comparing Ireland and the United Kingdom 2013[xxxii] shows that Irish women enjoyed better mental health, less maternal deaths, fewer still and premature births, and less handicaps such as celebral palsy – without abortion, as opposed to the UK which has abortion, almost on demand. In fact, according to UN and WHO studies, Ireland has consistently shown itself to be one of the safest places in the world for child-bearing.[xxxiii]

WHY WOULD THESE PROMINENT SPEAKERS BE A SOURCE OF CONCERN? WELL…

A quick look at the list of confirmed speakers[xxxiv] is a cause for concern. The list included many speakers engaged in ”sexual and reproductive rights” (an euphenism for abortion), from the population services, Population Council (often advocates of population control), the Gates Foundation, several UN bodies including the United Nations Family Planning Association (UNFPA)[xxxv] which is mired in controversy regarding China´s forced sterilization and abortion policy. In addition, it included speakers from major abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service and Marie Stopes. Prominent speakers included Celine Richards, Ann Furedi, Hilary Clinton, Anna Melissa Gates, Mary Robinson, Kate Gilmore… There were also speakers from several countries which are applying pressure on developing nations to implement a Western ”sexual and reproducitve rights” agenda in exchange for aid, eg, Norway, Sweden, USA. It is also disheartening to see two crown princesses and a queen aligning themselves with these women and organizations.

Cecile Richards, received an ”award for courage”[xxxvi] at the WD conference. She is president of Planned Parenthood. The profile accorded her on the WD homepage would suggest that she is a true advocate of women, however PP is an organization which was founded by Margaret Sanger, a woman known for her racist and bigotted views of black and poor people. Sanger was also a supporter of eugenics and an admirer of Hitler. Planned Parenthood makes millions of dollars every year from abortion, usually in poorer communities. The organization has been publicly accused of being profit-driven[xxxvii] and its workers have been exposed for withholding information, giving false information, failing to report crimes against minors (eg. incest, human trafficking), failing to meet health regulations, and most recently for selling foetal body parts for profit, ie. human eyes, brains, hearts, livers and kidneys from early and late term aborted babies…[xxxviii] [xxxix]

Planned Parenthood is and has been at the centre of controversy on the American political stage. Many states have withdrawn their financial support and invested it in other clinics which serve women without recourse to abortion. Many clinics have been closed, mostly for failing to comply with state regulations, and many former staff members are leaving and speaking out.[xl] [xli] Note too, that when Abby Johnson, former director of PP Texas left the organization and spoke out about its profit-driven agenda, the organization sought (unsuccessfully) to bring an injunction against her and legally silence her on the false grounds that she was breaking confidentiality.[xlii]

When David Daleidan, undercover investigative journalist, exposed PP for the selling of human foetal parts for profit, a state attorney sought to have him silenced, charged and imprisoned by bringing false accusations against him. It was later revealed that the attorney is closely associated with PP. The charges against him in this regard were recently thrown out of court.[xliii] Furthermore, PP is the subject of several ongoing investigations regarding the allegations made against them.[xliv]

Another participant is abortion provider, Ann Furedi, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, the largest abortion provider in the UK. The UK is dubbed the ”abortion capital of Europe”, with an average of 600 abortions per day, widely available up to 24 weeks gestation, and up to birth in some circumstances. This organization recently launched a campaign calling for access to abortion up to birth for any reason…[xlv] [xlvi] She argues that ”the best abortion law is no abortion law at all”. She also publicly defended sex-selective abortions a few years ago in the UK, specifically the abortion of girls![xlvii] Furthermore, she is a former director of Policy and Communication in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) which experiments in embyronic stem cell research and ”therapeutic” cloning, produced the first human-animal hydroid in the world and is currently experiementing in three person artificial insemination.[xlviii]

Hilary Clinton made a video speech during the closing ceremony of the conference. She recently made a call for global access to abortion. She is also an ardent supporter of Planned Parenthood[xlix] on a continent which sees abortion-on-demand up to birth in several states and which has an average of 3,300 abortions per day.[l] She supports abortion-on-demand up to birth, including partial birth abortion during which a third trimester foetus is born feet first, then killed by inserting a scissors into the base of his/her neck and sucking out his/her brain while the head is still within the mother. She has also publicly stated that she believes unborn ”persons” have no rights before birth.[li] Yet her country has the highest first-day-infant death rate amongst industrialized countries;[lii] a higher female mortality rate than countries with much more restrictive abortion laws; and poor maternal leave and health insurance benefits.[liii]

Meslissa Gates, of the Gates Foundation[liv], is actively engaged in the provision of contraceptives to poor girls and women on the African contintent. The Gates Foundation is investing millions of dollars to make contraceptives available to poor, often uneducated, women on a ”voluntary basis” in many developing countries around the world.[lv] This sounds laudable until one learns that women in these countries are often bribed with offers of luxuries which they would not otherwise afford in exchange for contraceptives and sterilization, and that many of the contraceptives are controversial because of their serious health risks. Can we presume that uneducated women will be told of these health risks in their local language?[lvi]

Will they be told that up to 55-60% of abortions take place due to failed contraceptives? Considering that transport and the provision of qualified personal is already a problem in rural villages in these countries, what guarantee do we have that poor, uneducated women will meet receive competent care if complications arise because of their contraceptives?[lvii] [lviii] Likewise, the Gates Foundation is working with Pfizer and other large multi-national bodies in ”developing and testing interventions” and ”developing innovative and affordable contraceptive technologies” regarding birth control in countries where companies often operate largely unregulated and poorly supervised.[lix] How can we be sure that these women are not being used as human guinea-pigs, at the mercy of pharamaceutical companies whose primiary interest is in making profit?[lx] [lxi] We are also told that millions of women have an ”unmet need” for contraceptives, yet when asked, these women state that they want education, midwives, clean water, sanitation, transport, antibiotics, and that they consider children a blessing and life a sacred gift.

During the conference, it was frequently stated that abortion was a human right. This is another false claim[lxii] and it is extremely disturbing these two prominent conference participants, Kate Gilmore and Mary Robinson, seem to go along with this charade. Mary Robinsons is a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Kate Gilmore is the current United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights. As such, both these women KNOW that there is no such thing as a right to abortion in any internationally recognized human rights document and that it is the sovereign right of every nation to organize their own laws on this matter. This was clearly affirmed in the Beijing documents, 1995, and in Amnesty International documents, 2007. They also know that the right to life is a universally recognized human right, including before birth in two internationally recognized human rights documents.[lxiii] [lxiv] Furthermore, these women ought to know that every attempt to have abortion recognized as a human right has been contested and voted down by the United Nations General Assembly every time it has been up for discussion, most recently last year when the objectives for Sustainable Development Goals were agreed![lxv] [lxvi]

It might also be added that Kate Gilmore is a former National Director of Amnesty International Australia and Executive Deputy Secretary General of Amnesty International. Amnesty International began advocating for access to abortion (without naming any time limits) and the decriminalization of abortion in 2007[lxvii], a decision which they sought to hide from the general public during the period in which she was holding her executive position in AI.[lxviii]

PRIVILEGED WOMEN PUSHING THEIR OWN AGENDA

The organization went on to join others advocating for the limiting of the right to freedom of conscience at the European Court in 2010.[lxix] [lxx] Fortunately, the European Court saw fit to reaffirm the right to freedom of conscience of medical professionals.[lxxi] AI ran public campaigns advocating for the abortion of unborn children at 15[lxxii] and 20[lxxiii] [lxxiv]weeks gestation in 2014-2015. An unborn child is 90% developed at 12 weeks.[lxxv] The organization also argued that the right to life only begins at birth during a hearing at the United Nations in June 2015.[lxxvi] They are currently arguing in several countries that refusing women an abortion is ”cruel and degrading treatment”, even though the articles in UN human rights documents concern torture, punishment and scientific experimentation… Would they have us believe that violently attacking innocent and defenseless human lives by tearing them apart, poisoning them[lxxvii] [lxxviii]and throwing them in garbage bins is not cruel and degrading? Would they have us believe that leaving children who survive abortions to die alone on a steel table, or die by poisoning or suffocation is not degrading and cruel?[lxxix] [lxxx] [lxxxi] [lxxxii] [lxxxiii]And what of the many women coerced into abortion through lack of alternatives, knowledge and because of violence?[lxxxiv]

No, these women and children did not feature on the Women Deliver Global Conference agenda.

Instead it would seem that radical abortion advocates were given centre stage while the unborn child was sidelined and his/her humanity ignored. Common, cruel and violent abortion procedures were ignored. The human fruits[lxxxv] of these abortions were ignored. Millions of women suffering after abortion were given no voice. Millions of girl-children being aborted because they are girls were given no recognition.[lxxxvi] [lxxxvii] [lxxxviii]The women maimed and killed by legal abortionists and the clinics who misinform, withhold vital information and fail to keep legal regulations were not mentioned even though their criminal deeds destroy lives all over the world.[lxxxix] [xc] [xci] [xcii] [xciii] [xciv] [xcv] Instead, the bloodstained clinics who sell foetal body parts for profit were honoured, and we were offered the lie that abortion is a human right.

It is profoundly disturbing to see huge sections of humanity being ignored, sidelined and silenced by the very people who claim to be advocates for women and girls. It is also profoundly disturbing to see powerful organizations and individuals pushing for global abortion. In the end, we must ask ourselves what agenda is really being served here? And what exactly is Women Deliver delivering?