U.S. isolated at population meeting over antiabortion stand

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Bangkok, Thailand

The United States continued to be an irritant for other countries at the fifth Asian and Pacific Population Conference (APPC) here on Monday, and consequently stood isolated and criticized for its rigid stand against abortion and its advocacy of abstinence above condom-use among adolescents.

The United States has been under fire from other member countries of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) as well as from non-governmental organizations and the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD).

They claimed that the United States was rolling back women's reproductive rights and diluting the commitments made at the International Conference on Population Development in Cairo in 1994.

Steven W. Sinding, director-general of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), in his statement at the opening of the APPC ministerial segment on Monday charged that "one major power, which played an important leadership role at Cairo, has completely reversed its position and has recently denied funding to both the IPPF and for children and the World Summit on Sustainable Development."

"That government engaged in an explicit attempt to roll back many of the core commitments and agreements that had been reached in Cairo," he said in his statement.

This view was supported by the statement of the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Thoraya Ahmed Obaid who said at the meeting that the meaning of the disputed phrases on reproductive health were never in doubt, including those on safe motherhood, voluntary family planning, protection from and treatment of sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS, and protection from gender-based violence.

"The phrase 'reproductive health services' is not code for the promotion or support for 'abortion services'. Nothing in the proceedings at Cairo, or the five-year review, justifies describing them as such," she said, adding that each country has the sovereign right to make laws regarding all aspects of reproductive health, including abortion.

The U.S. delegation at the conference, however, protested on Monday on how deliberation was going over the draft Plan of Action, which it claimed was forcing the U.S. to violate its principles.

"Up to this point, there has been a concerted effort to create a gulf by pushing the United States to violate its principles and accept language that promotes abortion," U.S. delegation spokesman Arthur E. Dewey told the ministerial segment of the conference, which opened on Monday.

"We have been asked to reaffirm the entirety of the ICPD principles and recommendations, even though we have repeatedly stated that to do so would constitute endorsement of abortion," Dewey, Assistant Secretary of State at the U.S. Department of State, said in the statement.

Dewey pointed out that the U.S. had made efforts to be flexible in seeking language that reflected their commitment to many of the overall goals of the ICPD, while still maintaining their policy of not promoting abortion.

Dewey also said that contrary to the belief of many people in the conference, the U.S. was not backing down from the Cairo commitment, and that it "strongly supports the ICPD principles of putting human concerns at the center of development efforts".

Dewey also queried delegations' rejection of the U.S. proposal to insert a general footnote to the draft Plan of Action, stating explicitly that the phrases do not promote abortion.

"When the United States offered to reaffirm the ICPD with a general footnote stating this explicitly, using recent consensus language, this proposal was met with a deaf ear. If the ICPD does not promote abortion, why is there such unwillingness to affirm this in the draft document?" he said.

Another reservation from the U.S. -- which had snagged deliberations over the APPC draft Plan of Action and tested the patience of many other delegations in the past five days -- was the chapter on adolescent reproductive health, which it construed to be endorsing under-aged sex.

"Contrary to the misinformation provided by some, abstinence is not the only choice the U.S. makes available to adolescents. The U.S. firmly believes, however, that abstinence is the preferred, most responsible, and healthiest choice for adolescents," Dewey said.

On the draft document of the Plan of Action presented to the ministerial segment, chairwoman of the APPC ministerial segment Dato' Seri Shahrizal Abdul Jalil from Malaysia asked for a new drafting committee to be established to deliberate the draft as well as the proposal from the United States.

The committee was again broken up into smaller groups of concerned delegations, and mediated by Indonesia, to informally deliberate a consensus between the position of other delegations and the U.S. position.

Until this report was filed, the informal meeting between countries had not come to a conclusion, and the chairwoman has extended the deadline until 9 a.m. on Tuesday.