02/16
Internationalreproductive health organisation, Marie Stopes International, expressed outrageat the latest assault on womens rights toreproductive health by the Bushadministration.
Thisnew attack was launched during United Nations talks in Bangkok last week whenBush administration representatives announced that the US
The original landmark agreement was made inCairo at the United Nations International Conference on Population andDevelopment (ICPD) in 1994 when 179 nations supported a Programme of Actionwhich would provide universal access to reproductive healthcare,information and family planning services.
TheUS ironically a key player in the formulation of the original agreement nowwants to reword the language, claiming that reference to reproductive servicesand rights amounts to an endorsement of abortion.
Such a claim isludicrous, said Patricia Hindmarsh, External Relations Director of MarieStopes International. A womans ability to plan how many children she wantsand when she wants them is central to the quality of her life. This action bythe Bush administration is a rejection of that right and is both inhuman andcruel given how many of some of the poorest and most vulnerable women will dieas a result of being denied essential services.
Mostnations have spent the last eight years building on that agreement and theapproach of ICPDs tenth anniversary provides an opportunity for themdemonstrate how the implementation of the programme has improved the rights andeconomic status of women.
Anyrewording enforced by the US will only water down these commitments and willultimately undermine many of the advances that have been made, said MsHindmarsh. As it is more needsto be done. Some 600,000 women are still dying each year from mostlypreventable causes related to pregnancy and millions more suffer injury orinfection.
According to the
Thislatest onslaught by the Bush administration follows hard on the heels of theadministrations decision this summer to withhold funding for the
(Ends)