The
UN's Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW) continued its distortion of the anti-discrimination treaty to
promote abortion during its Sixtieth Session in Geneva. While reviewing Ecuador's report,
a number of experts on the treaty monitoring body questioned the
official Ecuadorian delegation on the country's abortion policy seeking
expansion beyond the current exceptions which allow abortion when the
pregnancy threatens the mother's life, when there is a serious
untreatable threat to health, or when a mentally handicapped woman
conceives as a result of sexual assault.
A news report
co-authored by staff from Planned Parenthood Global and Human Rights
Watch summarized the intention of pro-abortion activists that
participated in the CEDAW reporting process, "The CEDAW committee
should recommend that Ecuador remove restrictions and criminal sanctions
for abortion, particularly for victims of sexual violence, to address
the public health crisis created by unsafe abortion. It should also urge
Ecuador to ensure that women have access to abortion in cases in which
it is already legal."
Official
UN press coverage of the CEDAW review reported on statements by
committee members supporting expansion of access to abortion. Questions
included, "What was being planned to ensure implementation of the
existing guidelines in a non-discriminatory fashion? What was being done
to make sure that women and girls were informed of the possibility to
receive such abortions? "
One expert stated that the denial of abortion when the pregnancy resulted from rape "could amount to torture and inhuman treatment. Such women had very limited choices." She asked, "When
would that issue be readdressed, and therapeutic abortion opened to all
women victims of rape and not only those with mental problems?"
Representatives
from Ecuador told the Committee that article 45 of their constitution
protects the right to life from the moment of conception but also
responded that "protocols for therapeutic abortions had been
greenlighted", and once in place "would eventually be applied to all
health systems."
The
delegation also explained that Ecuador has "strict protocols regarding
maternal deaths, as that was the only Millennium Development Goal that
Ecuador had not yet met" and explained that there are currently 93 cases of abortion under investigation.
A CEDAW expert also questioned, "...what
would happen when the right of the foetus was in contradiction with the
fundamental rights to life and well-being of the mother?"
Abortion
activists are eager to see laws protecting women and children from the
violence of abortion changed in Ecuador as a result of the CEDAW review,
"The CEDAW committee's scrutiny can be a game changer. Last year,
the Peruvian government issued its long-awaited therapeutic abortion
protocol the same week the CEDAW committee reviewed Peru's abortion
situation."
Yoko
Hayashi, CEDAW Chairperson, instructed the delegation that Ecuador
would soon receive the concluding observations through its Permanent
Mission in Geneva and the government "was encouraged to apply them fully." You can find all related documents on the CEDAW website.
The CEDAW session also reported on the activities of a number of its committee members which reveals their radical activist ideologies:
Ms.
Pimentel said that she had attended two events in Argentina on the
legalization of abortion, organized with support from human rights
groups including Amnesty International, members of academia and
representatives of State agencies. A central aim of both events had been
to present the legalization of abortion as a universal human rights issue rather than an exclusively women's issue.
Ms.
Leinarte said that she had given a presentation on the exploitation of
women in prostitution at the Women and Justice Summit in Istanbul,
during which she had explored the legalization of prostitution in Islamic cultures and countries.
Distortion
and re-interpretation of treaties have been conjured up by pro-abortion
legal strategists to advance access abortion and to portray abortion as
a human right while in fact no international treaty includes a right to
abortion. Observations and recommendations instructing countries to
change laws on abortion are part of this strategy but are not binding
and can be ignored by a country.
Such 'instructions'
ignore the fact that abortion denies a child her or his right to
life and triggers powerful physical, emotional and spiritual shockwaves that negatively impact a woman's life.
Ecuador will likely experience increased pro-abortion
pressure not only CEDAW, from the Human Rights Council, and other UN
treaty bodies, but also from the Inter American Commission on Human
Rights.
PNCI reported
in December on a new collaboration between the UN's Office of the High
Commissioner on Human Rights and the Inter American Commission on Human
Rights to assist "governments of OAS member States in the
implementation of recommendations of international human rights
mechanisms, including human rights treaty bodies, Special Procedures of
the Human Rights Council, and the Universal Periodic Review, and of
IACHR recommendations when appropriate".
Ecuador should continue
to say "No" to the violence of abortion and maintain its respect for
the dignity of life beginning at conception as stated in its
constitution.