In Opinion Piece, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith Expresses Concerns About Abortion Discussions At ICPD25 Conference

Wall Street Journal: Abortion Extremists Hijack the U.N.
Chris Smith, Republican U.S. representative of New Jersey

“…On Tuesday UNFPA opens the three-day Nairobi Summit, 25 years after the International Conference on Population Development in Cairo. As a member of Congress I attended the ICPD, where 179 governments and 11,000 participants developed an international consensus. Participants rejected a global right to abortion … and agreed that ‘governments should take appropriate steps to help women avoid abortion, which in no case should be promoted as a method of family planning.’ They respected national sovereignty, stating that ‘measures or changes related to abortion within the health system can only be determined at the national or local level according to the national legislative process.’ … [Conference organizers] have already drafted a series of ‘commitments’ intended to generate pledges from governments and civic organizations. The first commitment is to ‘achieve universal access to sexual and reproductive health’ as a part of universal health coverage. … The nonbinding summit statement, ‘ICPD25: Accelerating the Promise,’ also includes access to abortion as a component of ‘a comprehensive package of sexual and reproductive health interventions’ to be recognized as part of universal health coverage…” (11/11).

The KFF Daily Global Health Policy Report summarized news and information on global health policy from hundreds of sources, from May 2009 through December 2020. All summaries are archived and available via search.

KFF Headquarters: 185 Berry St., Suite 2000, San Francisco, CA 94107 | Phone 650-854-9400
Washington Offices and Barbara Jordan Conference Center: 1330 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005 | Phone 202-347-5270

www.kff.org | Email Alerts: kff.org/email | facebook.com/KFF | twitter.com/kff

The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news, KFF is a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California.