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UN Women’s Committee Pressuring Samoa to Legalize Abortion, Drop Fertility Rates

NEW YORK, February 3, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - At the United Nations, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is pushing the government of Samoa to legalize abortion and force more women out of their traditional family roles and into work and political life.

CEDAW issued a press release January 24, in which it complained that, despite having set up a Ministry for Women’s Affairs, the role of married women in Samoan society was too traditional and mostly oriented towards family life. It said not enough women run for political office, and that abortion is still illegal despite attempts to bring the country up to date.

The report said, “The daily lives of the majority of Samoan women were regulated by customary law and practices that were based on female subordination and stereotypical gender roles.” The committee experts said that despite the necessity of respect for Samoan cultural values, “it was important to struggle against the ‘entrenched prerogatives of the patriarch.’”

Traditional Samoan life is oriented around the extended family. This has provided care and a social safety net for women, children and the elderly. Since the government adopted the CEDAW convention in 1992, however, the incursions into that traditional way of life by the push to get women out of the home and into the workforce have begun to destabilize Samoan society.

In order to meet the goal of westernizing and modernizing the Samoan way of life, the report says, “Samoa needed to target measures at both women and men to combat deeply entrenched stereotypical attitudes.” The report praised the partial progress made towards CEDAW’s restructuring goals. “Other changes in the economic, social and political lives of women in Samoa include increased participation in paid employment, an increasing number in management positions, decreased fertility and a reduction in family size.”

The Samoan representatives said the country’s ban on abortion “had not kept up with the real situation.” Ms. Heather Latu said that babies are being abandoned at birth and that women are seeking “the services of backstreet abortionists.” Latu said “last year, Samoa’s Chief Justice had issued a directive that the Government consider the issue of abortion. The discussions on the issue were about to begin.”

Read CEDAW press release:
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/wom1481.doc.htm

For much more information on the history and dangers of CEDAW enter the word CEDAW in the LifeSiteNews.com search window.

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