Christian Science Monitor: How U.S. abortion wars translated into battle over 4 words at U.N.
“…After a couple of years of trying, the Trump administration appears to be making headway in its efforts to take its conservative views on reproductive health policies … to the United Nations. But for many of the United States’ closest allies, from Britain to France and Germany, the initiative signals an alarming shift away from Western values they have long promoted together, including women’s rights and gender equality. Instead, they see their traditional friend and leader moving toward the camp of socially conservative countries like Russia, Saudi Arabia, and others that have not been at the forefront of promoting women’s issues at the U.N. … In the U.N. Security Council debate late last month over a German-sponsored resolution on sexual violence in conflict, the U.S. succeeded … in having the words ‘sexual and reproductive health’ stripped from a U.N. text. … To many, the phrase might seem to offer little to fuss about, but removing it set off a caustic debate, revealing the deep fissures that continue to mark the international community over the issue of women’s rights…” (LaFranchi, 5/21).