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(LifeSiteNews) — The Biden administration has pressured a small African country to remove its name from an agreement that declares abortion is not a human right.
During the 43rd session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) held from January 23 to February 3, during which member states of the United Nations are allowed to review and critique the human rights records of any other member state, a representative of the United States government pressured the small North African country of Benin to remove its name from the firmly pro-life Geneva Consensus declaration.
During the quadrennial gathering, U.S. Ambassador Michèle Taylor recommended in her statement on behalf of the U.S. government that the Republic of Benin “recommit to implementing the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action, including through national commitments made at the ICPD+25 Nairobi Summit; work to achieve health- and gender-related targets of the Sustainable Development Goals.”
Taylor also advised that Benin “withdraw from contradictory joint initiatives like the Geneva Consensus Declaration.”
The Geneva Consensus Declaration, a pro-life declaration that firmly declares that abortion is not a human right, was introduced by the Trump-Pence administration and signed by over 30 countries on October 22, 2020, including the Republic of Benin.
The declaration reaffirms “the inherent ‘dignity and worth of the human person,’” and declares that “every human being has the inherent right to life.” It also emphasizes that “in no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning,” and states that “any measures or changes related to abortion within the health system can only be determined at the national or local level according to the national legislative process.”
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Founder and president of the Institute for Women’s Health, Valerie Huber, M.Ed, told the Center for Family and Human Rights that she finds the Biden regime’s attempt to pressure Benin towards its ideological agenda “astonishing.”
“I find it astonishing that the U.S. Government would pressure a sovereign country to withdraw from the Geneva Consensus Declaration, an agreement that affirms and quotes the ICPD Program of Action, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” she said.
“It is inexcusable to use the influence of the U.S. Government to push ideological agendas under the false guise of promoting human rights,” she added.
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Pressure from the United States for Benin to drop the Geneva Consensus Declaration comes despite the fact that Benin already has one of the most liberal abortion laws in Africa, authorizing abortion in cases other than death in October 2021. Under its current law, abortion is legal in Benin up to 12-weeks gestation, if the pregnancy would “aggravate or cause a situation of material, educational, professional or moral distress incompatible with the interest of the woman and/or the unborn child.”
This is not the first time that small African countries have been targeted by larger, pro-abortion countries that attempt to push their secularist, pro-abortion worldview on smaller nations. Under the Trudeau regime alone, Canada has pledged billions of dollars to African countries in the hope of providing them with abortions. Pro-life African leaders have criticized Trudeau for his seeming desperation in pushing abortion on their people.
“Simply put, Justin Trudeau is not a friend to Africa,” Culture of Life Africa founder and president, Obianuju Ekeocha, said in 2020.
“Across the African continent we now see Canadian taxpayer funds being used to sponsor ideological propaganda projects, thereby pushing upon the people of Africa a form of ideological neocolonialism,” she added.
Benin has not yet announced whether it shall hold to the Geneva Consensus Declaration or whether it will follow the United States’ recommendation.
Help a Nigerian bishop feed and clothe his flock: LifeFunder
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