Volume 7, Number 15

April 2, 2004

Abortion Advocates Complain at UN that Universal Right to Abortion is Stalled

By Douglas A. Sylva, Ph.D.

     (NEW YORK - C-FAM)  Abortion advocates met last week to complain that the global advance for abortion on demand has been stalled because of ongoing opposition from the Bush Administration and the Catholic Church. The onset of what some are calling the demographic winter of rapidly aging European populations was also blamed. At the meeting, which was organized by Ipas, the manufacturer of the portable abortion machine, and Population Action International (PAI), a longtime advocate for population control, it was concluded that certain public relations strategies would need to be continued and enhanced to overcome facts that are hindering the pro-abortion campaign.

     The Ipas representative from Romania, Daniela Draghici, admitted that the real "trauma" suffered by women who have abortions cannot be acknowledged by abortion advocates, because such "information is being misused" by Catholic and Orthodox opponents of abortion in Poland, Slovakia and Russia. Ipas also claimed that abortion on demand is essential, since any restrictions on abortion result in a vast increase in the number of illegal, and therefore dangerous, abortions. As proof, Ipas asserts that "Poland's law, the most restrictive in Eastern Europe, has led to as many as 200,000 illegal abortions a year in Poland." However, in the meeting, the Ipas representative from Poland bluntly admitted that the 200,000 number was not true.

     Draghici admitted that population decline in Eastern Europe, where many countries are projected to loose between 20 to 40 per cent of their population over the next 50 years, was especially "tricky" for abortion advocates, since adversaries were blaming abortion for the decline. In response, Draghici suggested that abortion needs to be portrayed as a basic human right, even as a woman's most fundamental human right, no matter how far a population may fall and how obvious the connection to abortion might be. In its own literature, Ipas admits, for example, that Eastern Europe has the world's highest abortion rate, that, after the legalization of abortion in Romania, there were three abortions for every live birth, and that 75% of all fertility problems in Russia were "due to complications from one or more previous abortions."

     Draghici, as well as Ipas representatives from Poland and Slovakia, voiced concerns over the influence of the Catholic Church. The Slovakian mentioned a pending treaty between his country and the Holy See as particularly dangerous, claiming that if approved, the treaty would grant doctors the right to refuse to perform abortions and would grant Catholic schools the right to refuse to teach information on sexuality and abortion that was antithetical to Catholic beliefs.

     Ipas is also concerned that Slovakian women "must be informed of the possible health consequences of abortion" before they can obtain abortions. According to Ipas, "information of this sort can be biased and coercive."

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