Volume 7, Number 27

June 25, 2004

Stymied at UN, Pro-Abortion Advocates Turn to Regional Meetings

By Douglas A. Sylva, Ph.D.

     (NEW YORK - C-FAM) In a sign of growing frustration with their inability to establish sweeping new rights in international documents, radical feminists are trumpeting supposedly significant victories in minor Latin American economic meetings.

     According to Ximena Machicao, a member of Bolivia's delegation to the next such meeting to be held in Puerto Rico next week, called the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Ad Hoc Committee on Population and Development, the region has already "united on an issue of transcendent importance, isolating the hard-line, conservative position presented by the United States...So we must take our victory to Puerto Rico."

     Machicao admits that radical feminist advocates have turned to regional meetings because "Women's organizations that have put so much effort into the UN agenda are a bit tired and frustrated because we still have not obtained our goals....Our achievements to date are insufficient...We still face a long and difficult road to turn the rhetoric of these [international] conferences into a different social reality for women and men."

     One reason Machicao cites for radical feminist advances at these regional meetings is the fact there has not been an "overwhelming presence of conservative NGOs, 'pro-life' groups or the Vatican," leaving the United States more isolated.

     Machicao and many of her allies believe that the inclusion of phrases such as "sexual and reproductive rights" and "reproductive health care services" in regional documents signal a major triumph in the effort to establish a right to abortion-on-demand, and they hope to insert the same language in the document to be negotiated at the meeting in Puerto Rico.

     But it remains uncertain what kind of victory the inclusion of "sexual rights" happens to be, since the phrase is not clearly defined. When it was first discussed, also without a definition, during the 4th World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995, it was rejected by 65 nations.

     Some observers believe that "sexual rights" is so ambiguous that it could legitimate all forms of consensual sexual activity, including pedophilia, prostitution, bigamy, incest and homosexual marriage. The World Association of Sexology (WAS) has developed an influential definition of "sexual rights" that includes "the right to sexual equality" regardless of "sexual orientation" or "age." It also mentions the "right to full access to the means of fertility regulation," as well as the "right to sexually associate freely" in all manner of sexual relationships, as long as they are consensual. WAS further believes that "sexual rights" includes a "right to comprehensive sexuality education. This is a lifelong process from birth throughout the lifecycle and should involve all social institutions."

     It is expected that radical feminists will attempt to use these regional documents at the next World Conference on Women.

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