In this Sunday's edition of the Washington Post, U.S. Congressman Chris Smith warned that an abortion agenda at the United Nations threatens to derail Millennium Development Goal number 5 of sharply reducing global maternal mortality, by diverting life-saving resources away from mothers and into legalizing abortion.
Smith, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa and global health, said that while health activists and world leaders were convening this week at the UN to discuss the eight Millennium Development Goals and the targets to achieve by 2015, "the most compelling and achievable objectives - huge reductions in maternal and child mortality worldwide - will be severely undermined if the Obama administration either directly or covertly integrates abortion into the final outcome document."
The pro-life human rights leader said that if abortion proponents get their way and make abortion included as a part of "reproductive health" then the "robust resolve required at national levels to deploy the funds needed to achieve the internationally agreed targets will be compromised."
He pointed out that at least 125 sovereign nations have laws or constitutions prohibiting or restricting abortion, and so re-defining "reproductive health" to include abortion would risk their wholly committed financial support to ending maternal mortality.
Smith also pointed out that a Lancet study underscored the point, contrary to what pro-abortion advocates contend, that nations with laws prohibiting abortion "have some of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world – Ireland, Chile and Poland among them."
"We have known for more than 60 years what actually saves women's lives: skilled attendance at birth, treatment to stop hemorrhages, access to safe blood, emergency obstetric care, antibiotics, repair of fistulas, adequate nutrition, and pre- and post-natal care," said Smith. "The goal of the upcoming summit should be a world free of abortion, not free abortion to the world."
Click here to read the rest of Rep. Chris Smith's op-ed in the Sunday's Washington Post.
Contact: Peter J. Smith
Date Published: September 21, 2010
