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United Nations Women's Committee Gets In-House Lobby by Radical Pro-Abortion Group

NEW YORK, July 29, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As the United Nations Committee which monitors the implementation of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) wrapped up its latest three-week session it heard from various groups on how to ensure implementation of the convention's policies. Apart from hearing from groups concerned with legitimate women's issues such as protection from armed conflict, the CEDAW committee also heard from the radical pro-abortion group Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) on July 21.

Known as the legal arm of pro-abortion militants in the U.S., CRR is notorious for fighting even health and safety regulations for abortion clinics since such regulations might harm the abortion business. Late last year secret internal CRR documents were leaked to the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute which confirmed that the powerful pro-abortion group was involved in a "stealth" campaign to force all countries to provide abortion-on-demand through international law. (See the LifeSiteNews.com coverage, which includes links to full document: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/dec/03121102.html )

CRR's Pardiss Kebriaei presented her points to the CEDAW committee meeting under the guise of calling nations to "ensure universal access to reproductive health care." However, Kebriaei claimed that "imposing or failing to remove barriers to women's access to family planning and safe abortion services discriminated against women." Identifying CRR's agenda brazenly, she continued, "States should enact laws allowing abortion without restriction, take other legal and policy measure to ensure the accessibility of high-quality abortion services and the full range of contraceptive methods."

The CRR spokesman also suggested that "punishing women who had illegal abortions, or suffered stillbirths resulting from prenatal practices such as drug use, was discriminatory." She stated, "States should cease all criminal prosecutions of pregnant women for stillbirths, and repeal all penal laws punishing women on the basis of their reproductive capacity, including laws on abortion." (see the UN report on the proceedings: http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/wom1461.doc.htm )

Commenting on the U.N. proceedings, Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America told LifeSiteNews.com "It is surprising that CRR needed to meet with the CEDAW committee, considering the committee has had some outrageous pro-abortion recommendations already." Wright noted numerous pro-abortion and anti-family CEDAW committee rulings such as its telling Mexico to allow 'swift and easy' access to abortion. Wright told LifeSiteNews.com that she had compiled a 36-page list of outrageous quotes from the CEDAW committee. (available here:
http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=1870&department=CWA&categoryid=nation )

Considering the radical nature of CRR, Wright said it was nonetheless "frightening that the committee may be taking suggestions from CRR which can only lead us to the conclusion that the committee may come out with some even more outrageous rulings." Wright noted that the U.S. has not ratified the CEDAW and thus is not subject to the committee's supervision. "If the CEDAW committee is taking recommendations from CRR it adds more reason why the U.S. should not ratify it, we feel sorry for those countries that have ratified," Wright concluded.

jhw

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