Volume 7, Number 26

June 18, 2004

New Latin American Document Recognizes "Sexual Rights

By Douglas A. Sylva, Ph.D.

     (NEW YORK - C-FAM) A discord-filled Latin American regional meeting held in Mexico City last week witnessed pro-abortion and pro-lesbian advocates take control of many government delegations, allegations of blackmail made against the United States, and the acceptance of a document that appears to support abortion, even though most Latin American countries recognize the right to life from the moment of conception.

     The outcome of the Ninth Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean left radical feminist advocates claiming a victory for their agenda and a defeat for the United States and its pro-life allies, including Nicaragua and El Salvador.

     The outcome document, what is now being called the "Mexico City Consensus," includes language calling on Latin American states to implement legislation "Guaranteeing the responsible exercise of sexual and reproductive rights and access without discrimination to health services, encompassing sexual and reproductive health."

     The most significant aspect of this language is the insertion of "sexual rights." Ellen Sauerbrey, US Ambassador to the UN Commission on the Status of Women and the head of the US delegation at the meeting, told the Friday Fax that, "I am concerned about the implication of 'sexual rights' because to the best of my knowledge it is a new and undefined concept, one that I have not seen in any major international document." Some observers believe that radical feminists hope that "sexual rights" could eventually include such things as abortion-on-demand, legalized prostitution, homosexual marriage, and complete sexual autonomy for children.

     According to Lilian Celiberti, of Articulacion Feminista Marcosur, a pro-abortion women's group, the US was so concerned with this language that it "blackmailed several delegations to prevent the use of the terms 'sexual and reproductive rights' in the final document," an allegation that is vehemently denied by Saurebrey. According to Sauerbrey, "Absolutely at no point at this meeting or leading up to it was there any implication that the many programs that the United States funds to promote women's rights throughout the world would be impacted by decisions made by delegations at this or any other international meeting."

     According to a news report, the goal of such regional meetings is to create documents that will be sent to United Nations headquarters in New York, to represent the "objectives" of the Latin American region during next year's Beijing +10 Conference, the ten-year follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women.

     Rocio Galvez, president of Provida, a Mexican pro-life group that worked with many other pro-life NGOs at the meeting, said that, "We see what happened in Mexico as very disturbing, because the pro-abortion and pro-lesbian groups imposed a stance against life and morality which does not at all represent the views of this region. I hope that in Beijing +10 there is more tolerance, and that it is made clear that not all social groups advocate anti-family practices like abortion and homosexuality."

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