UN Group Releases Pro-life Document

Pro-life government, academic, legal, and civil society representatives recently presented at United Nations Headquarters a new declaration intended to help governments guarantee the rights of unborn children and reject pressure to adopt laws that would legalize or de-criminalize abortion.

At a press conference sponsored by the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See, Grover Joseph Rees III, a former United States Special Representative for social issues to the United Nations, said the document listed nine articles that provided "ammunition" to the growing number of countries, particularly small developing nations dependent on international aid, being bullied into believing that they must abandon pro-life policies in order to be in compliance with their international treaty obligations.

Austin Ruse, President of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute advised that the document contained "plenty of language" that officials could use to promote and protect the rights of unborn children.  Approximately thirty parliamentarians, academics, human rights lawyers, physicians, public-policy experts, and representatives of non-governmental organizations from the United States, Canada, Europe, Latin America, and Asia had signed the articles at a conference in March in San Jose, Costa Rica, he added.  Among other things, they are designed to ensure that national laws and policies protected the rights of human beings from the moment of conception, establish that there was no human right to abortion under international law, and dissuade aid donors from funding abortions or making acceptance of them a condition for receiving aid.

Robert George, Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program at Princeton University, said the San Jose Articles and their promoters aimed to defend the dignity of all human beings, beginning at conception, and to protect it from "a partisan cause" seeking to hijack great moral principles and international law to justify the killing of unborn children.

Asked to specify what United Nations treaties and officials had recently pointed to a right to abortion under international law, Mr. Ruse said that a few weeks ago, the Special Rapporteur on Health and the High Commissioner for Human Rights had made statements to that effect.  In addition, Kosovo, Timor-Leste, Kenya, and other nations that had signed United Nations treaties were increasingly being told that they must legally uphold abortion rights based on non-discrimination, public-health, and reproductive health grounds.  Mr. Rees added that the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) were also promoting abortion rights.

Responding to a question about emergency contraception, Mr. Rees said the San Jose Articles did not discuss the subject.  He reiterated, however, that life began at conception and anything ending it, including in its early stages, was a form of abortion.

To access the San Jose Articles and related information, please visit:

San Jose Articles

Media reports:

C-FAM Friday Fax: Major Pro-Life Legal/Scientific Document Launched at UN Headquarters (7 OCT 11))

NRL News Today: San Jose Articles” Offer Careful Rebuttal to Spurious Claim of International "Right" to Abortion (7 OCT 11)