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NEW YORK, April 14, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The recently appointed head of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has said that the member states of the United Nations and all “development actors” must make a final push to achieve universal access to “reproductive health.”

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Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, a medical doctor from Nigeria, was speaking at his inaugural speech on Monday to the Commission on Population and Development.

“We need to keep pushing to make universal access to reproductive health a reality,” said Dr. Osotimehin. “Investing in the health and rights of women and young people is not an expenditure; it is an investment in our future.”

It is widely acknowledged that at the UN, the term “reproductive health” is a bureaucratic euphemism that typically includes abortion, sterilization and artificial contraception.

He said that the greatest priority for the UNFPA would be to close the “$24-billion gap in funding” for the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). The UN had issued a report a year ago calling for the nations to earmark a total of (U.S.) $24 billion a year to implement population control programs, including abortion and contraception in developing countries. The report promoted “safe” abortion as a way to improve maternal and newborn health.

Each year, said Osotimehin, “neglect of sexual and reproductive health results in an estimated 80 million unintended pregnancies; 22 million unsafe abortions; and 358,000 deaths from maternal causes — including 47,000 deaths from unsafe abortion.”

Osotimehin’s November 2010 appointment to the UNFPA, the world’s largest abortion-promoting organization, was praised by several leading international abortionist organizations.

Adrienne Germain, president of the International Women’s Health Coalition, said, “Dr. Osotimehin brings to the job substantial knowledge of and an impressive track record in health policies, programs and services.”

London-based Marie Stopes, one of the busiest abortionist groups in the developing world, said they looked forward to “continued collaboration with him and with UNFPA to advance our common mission to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted.”

Dr. Gill Greer, Director General of International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and Chairman of UNFPA’s NGO Advisory Panel, said, “As a key partner of the UNFPA, IPPF looks forward to working with Dr. Osotimehin to achieve our joint goals.”

While in Nigeria, Osotimehin was professor of medicine at the University of Ibadan, and the African spokesman for the UN’s Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. He also served as the country’s Director-General of the country’s National Agency for the Control of HIV and AIDS.