Planned Parenthood Fails to Promote Abortion at Recent Summit of the Americas

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Apr 20, 2009   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Planned Parenthood Fails to Promote Abortion at Recent Summit of the Americas

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 20
, 2009

Port of Spain, Trinidad (LifeNews.com) — International pro-abortion advocates from Planned Parenthood appear to have been unable to promote abortion at the recent Summit of the Americas meeting. Leading pro-life advocates were concerned they would team up with Obama officials to promote abortion using coded phrases.

Marie Smith, the director of the Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues, previously told LifeNews.com that International Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion organizations might insert pro-abortion language into the Summit’s Declaration of Commitment.

Abortion advocates regularly work to get phrases like "reproductive health" and "reproductive rights" into UN and international documents and then later construe those terms as including abortion.

The final declaration of the Summit includes some changes but not the “sexual and reproductive rights and health” terms desired by abortion advocates.

Still, pro-life advocates are concerned that some 32 references to health care and new language on maternal mortality cause concern. As does the global Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, mentioned in the declaration, that supports abortion.

Other paragraphs of the final document contain undefined health terms that could be problematic, but a leading pro-life advocate who spoke with LifeNews.com was not sure if the terms were defined in a way that would cause concerns.

LifeNews.com was told that more "monitoring and vigilance" is needed to make sure abortion advocates are not able to use future international meetings to promote abortion.

On the other side, blog posts indicate Amnesty International, which recently adopted a position in favor of abortion, complained about the Summit and the declaration. That appears to be good news for pro-life campaigners.

The Declaration of Commitment of Port of Spain was adopted by consensus at the close of the Summit. The governments of Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Honduras, all pro-life nations, that they were not prepared to formally sign the Declaration and they decided to adopt it by a voice consensus instead.

As a result, Trinidadian Prime Minister Manning signed the document on behalf of the nations.

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