Washington D.C., Jan 15, 2010 / 03:14 am
Claiming to honor the 15th anniversary of the International Conference on Population Control (ICPD), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared in Washington D.C. on January 8 that the U.S. government will push for international acceptance of reproductive health for women, including abortion, contradicting the conference's previous agreements.
The ICPD, which was held in Cairo, Egypt in 1994 with 179 participating countries, was part of a U.N. effort to address population concerns, including reproductive health initiatives for women.
“The Cairo document did not include abortion as part of reproductive health,” stated Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM). “As a matter of fact,” he continued, “the Cairo conference formally said that abortion cannot be a part of family planning.”
Though Ruse told CNA that this was initially a “a great victory” at the time for pro-life supporters, things have now drastically changed under Secretary Clinton's influence. The C-FAM president underscored his claim by pointing to her testimony before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee in April 2009. Clinton told Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) in her testimony that “We happen to think that family planning is an important part of women's health and reproductive health includes access to abortion that I believe should be safe, legal and rare.”