Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 6 2005 (IPS) — As expected, the United States has once again raised the politically divisive issue of abortion at a crucial U.N. meeting here, refusing to reaffirm the landmark Programme of Action unanimously adopted at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo.

According to an amendment introduced by the United States, Washington has indicated its willingness to support the ICPD programme of action only "with the understanding that nothing therein creates a right to abortion."

"As everyone knows, the Cairo conference made it clear that abortion was a national matter, not an international matter," a Third World delegate told IPS.

"The (George W.) Bush administration is obviously bent on sabotaging these post-Cairo meetings with a politically sensitive issue that was settled as far back as 1994," he added.

Werner Fornos, president of the Washington-based Population Institute, said that paragraph 8.25 of the unanimously adopted 1994 Cairo Programme of Action clearly states that "in no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning."

"What could be more precise or concise than that?" he asked.

"Once again the Bush administration throws raw meat to placate fundamentalist zealots who use the abortion issue as a backdoor ploy to suppress family planning," Fornos told IPS.

The U.S. move also came on the eve of World Health Day Thursday, whose slogan this year is "Make Every Mother and Child Count" in light of alarming figures showing that women in the poorest countries face a one in 16 risk of dying during pregnancy or childbirth.

U.N. experts note that providing family planning could reduce maternal mortality by 25 percent.

According to several delegates, the U.S. decision to block consensus on the resolution is being backed by at least four countries: Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Qatar and Egypt.

Fornos said it is unfortunate that a small group of nations "buys into this transparent subterfuge by the United States".

"I am particularly dismayed that Egypt -where the historic Cairo conference was held -has chosen to join a cozy coalition of the unwilling in a retrogressive reversal of reason," he added.

The resolution, which among other things reaffirms the ICPD programme of action, was expected to be adopted by consensus at the end of a one-week meeting of the U.N. Commission on Population and Development (CPD) which began Apr.4 and is expected to conclude Apr 8.

The theme of the CPD session is population, development and HIV/AIDS, with particular emphasis on poverty.

The commission is also expected to discuss the implementation of ICPD programme of action and the achievement of the internationally-agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration adopted in September 2000.

But the Bush administration, which draws strong support from right-wing Christian fundamentalists, has been trying to hijack the CPD meeting – as it has done at several previous meetings – by raising the issue of abortion.

At a two-week U.N. conference aimed at taking stock of the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women, the Bush administration pressed its anti-abortion agenda, triggering strong protests from developing nations and from non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

The anti-abortion issue threatened to also disrupt that meeting, held at U.N. headquarters last month, whose primary agenda was to advance women’s equality.

Although the U.S. delegation subsequently dropped the amendment, the New York Times said the "damage" by then had already been done.

"An apology is due from the United States delegation for the weeklong disruption it caused," the Times said in an editorial titled ‘The Bush Team’s Abortion Misstep.’

"At a moment when the United States should be leading the world on advancing women’s equality, the Bush administration chose instead to alienate government ministers and 6,000 other delegates at an important U.N. conference on that issue with a burst of anti-abortion zealotry," the editorial added.

Addressing the CPD session Monday, the Executive Director of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) Thoraya Obaid told delegates that governments in all regions have reaffirmed their commitment to the ICPD programme of action, and to the achievement of universal access to reproductive health by the year 2015.

"They have acknowledged that the issues of population and reproductive health are central to the Millennium Declaration, and to the creation of a world where people live free from fear and free from want, in dignity and in peace," she said.

Obaid also pointed out that the Cairo agenda makes "a significant contribution to the reduction of poverty and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)."

The MDGs include a 50 percent reduction in poverty and hunger; universal primary education; reduction of child mortality by two-thirds; cutbacks in maternal mortality by three-quarters; the promotion of gender equality; and the reversal of the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

A summit meeting of 189 world leaders in September 2000 pledged to meet all of these goals by the year 2015. But their implementation has depended primarily on increased development aid by Western donors.

A second summit meeting, scheduled to take place in New York in September this year, will review the progress made so far and set the world’s development agenda for the next decade.

Obaid said that the greatest improvements in reducing extreme poverty have been registered in East Asia and South Asia, where more than 200 million people have been lifted out of poverty since 1990 alone.

She said that guaranteeing access to family planning alone could reduce maternal mortality by 25 percent and child mortality by up to 20 percent.

"Five years into the new millennium, we have an unprecedented opportunity to make the right to development a reality," Obaid added.

The ICPD programme of action estimated that carrying out programmes in the area of reproductive health and the collection and analysis of population data would cost about 17 billion dollars annually by the year 2000 and 18.5 billion dollars by 2005.

Approximately two-thirds of the projected costs would come from developing countries, and about one-third from the international donor community.

According to the latest figures, Obaid said, donors provided an estimated 4.5 billion dollars in 2004, up from 2.6 billion dollars in 2000, and projections for 2005 are encouraging.

"I urge donors to remain on track to reach the 2005 target by living up to their commitments and continuing to increase funding levels as promised," she added.