News

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 10 (LSN)—The UN's Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women concluded its eighteenth session last Friday. The session, which began on January 19, saw continued efforts to push for a universal “right” to abortion on demand. Committee members blatantly sought to push abortion in Croatia, Indonesia, and Mexico.  In considering the report of Croatia, the UN committee said it was “concerned” with the “close relationship between the government and the Church-related non-governmental organizations, which,  it felt, could compromise the demarcation between the secular State and the Church.” The only reason offered for this “concern” was that “services pertaining to women’s reproductive health were the first to be cut in times of financial restraint,” and that “some hospitals refused to provide abortions on the basis of conscientious objection of doctors.”  In considering Mexico’s report, the Committee “strongly recommended that the government take steps to secure women’s enjoyment of their reproductive rights by, among other measures,  guaranteeing them access to abortion services in public hospitals.” The government was also asked “to consider revising the legislation criminalizing abortion.”  In its consideration of the second and third periodic reports of Indonesia, the UN Committee “was very concerned at the existence of discrimination in laws that required a woman to obtain her husband’s consent in order…to undergo sterilization procedures, or to obtain an abortion.”