Proposed New Pro-Abortion United Nation’s Women’s Agency Draws Opposition

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jul 14, 2006   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Proposed New Pro-Abortion United Nation’s Women’s Agency Draws Opposition Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 14, 2006

New York, NY (LifeNews.com) — A top United Nations official is calling for the creation of a new women’s agency that would be devoted to promoting women’s rights. However, the agency would receive most of its input for its structure and purpose from abortion advocacy groups, leading one women’s organization to say the agency is unnecessary.

Stephen Lewis, a former Canadian UN ambassador who is a special UN envoy to Africa who addresses AIDS issues, is leading the call for the new agency.

"We have United Nation’s agencies for everything from children, to health, to food, to education," he told Voice of America. "We do not have a United Nation’s agency to represent, and assist and liberate, and enhance the lives of more than half the world’s people."

Lewis said the agency should be run different from other UN outfits in that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who have been involved in previous population conferences should craft the agency’s agenda.

However, Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, twice a United States Delegate to U.N. conferences and a Concerned Women for America spokeswoman, says most NGOs are primarily pro-abortion groups that want to establish a worldwide right to abortion.

“Lewis’ proposal would dramatically strengthen the already-incredibly-strong radical feminist influence at the U.N., and it would virtually ensure that abortion would become a human right around the world," Crouse said in a statement provided to LifeNews.com.

"Plus, having an agency devoted solely to so-called ‘women’s rights’ would require an increase in already exorbitant funding for the U.N. from member nations – especially the United States – and funnel that extra money into the radical feminist agenda," Crouse explained.

CWA points out that in recent years the phrases “women’s rights are human rights” and "reproductive rights" have become a rallying cry for the United Nations to implement a whole panoply of radical initiatives and policies around the world, including legalizing abortion in every nation possible.

“One of the scariest aspects of Lewis’ plan is to involve international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the planning and operation of the agency," Crouse added.

"Anyone who has knowledge of how the U.N. works recognizes the tremendous influence these radical NGOs have through their domination of U.N. world conferences — especially those for women — and their behind-the-scenes expertise in lobbying for far-left reproductive services (code for abortion) policies," she said.

Lewis’ plan for a new agency may gain little traction, according to a Toronto Sun report, which says other agencies such as UNICEF, the UN Population Fund, the World Health Organization, and the UN Development Program may balk at having a women’s agency take some of their programs.

UNICEF has come under fire for promoting abortion and the UNFPA has long been a subject of criticism because of its participation in China’s family planning programs, which allow the birth of just one child and include the forced abortion and sterilization of women.

Lewis, who was the deputy director for UNICEF for four years, said other UN agencies have nothing to fear from his proposal.

Related web sites:
Concerned Women for America – https://www.cwfa.org