November 26, 2012

UN report on world population draws criticism from pro-life advocates

 
The world's population reached 7 billion on 31 October 2011. UN Photo/Rick Bajornas
 
"The State of World Population 2012," a new report by the United Nations Population Fund, has attracted criticism from pro-life advocates because of its emphasis on contraception as a human right.

The report calls upon nations to "promote family planning as a right, the exercise of which enables the attainment of a whole range of other rights."

"All human beings—regardless of age, sex, race or income—are equal in dignity and rights," the report adds. "Yet 222 million women in developing countries are unable to exercise the human right to voluntary family planning."

"The UN doesn't have the authority to declare contraception a human right, but particularly an agency of the UN doesn't have the right to declare something a human right; it debases the entire concept of human rights, to declare a commodity or a product a human right," said Wendy Wright of the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute.

Source: CWN