Guatemala, a strongly pro-life country, is being pressured by the Biden administration to leave the Geneva Consensus Declaration (GCD), a 2020 agreement consisting of 35 countries representing 1.6 billion people. The GCD declared that abortion is not an international right, and was adopted in a ceremony presided by then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar. Now, with pro-abortion President Joe Biden in office, things are different.
C-Fam reports that the Biden administration wants Guatemala to withdraw its signature from the agreement. In response, a group of senators wrote a letter encouraging the country’s president to stand strong:
As you know, Guatemala serves as a regional leader for the GCD – giving Guatemala the unique opportunity to host pilot projects and other initiatives centered around expanding health for women and families, both in Guatemala and in the region. For example, the First Lady of Uganda, the GCD regional leader for Africa, recently partnered with the Institute for Women’s Health for the global launch of the Protego Women’s Optimal Health Framework, a high-level event attended by senior representatives of 8 other African countries to promote high impact, low cost strategies to improve health for women across Africa. Similar non-political leadership opportunities are available to GCD leaders.
Guatemala is a vibrant country with a young population and a myriad of indigenous people groups. Guatemala has enormous potential to equip the next generation to promote holistic women’s health and flourishing and ensure family-strengthening and the GCD is a powerful mechanism to support these priorities.
There is a strong pro-life sentiment in Guatemala, including among citizens, who chased off a Dutch abortion ship operated by Women on Waves; one bystander reportedly called out, “Why don’t you go to the Netherlands to kill children?” Leaders have also refused to allow Planned Parenthood to operate within the country.
It is not yet clear how the new president, Bernardo Arévalo, will legislate on the issue of abortion; however, his predecessor, Alejandro Giammattei, was staunchly pro-life, even naming Guatemala as the pro-life capital of Latin America. He spoke out after being snubbed by the Biden White House after the administration hosted the Summit for Democracy in 2021 and did not include Guatemala in the invitation.
“Doing one’s duty should go without thanks. And all I have done has been my duty,” Giammettei said in the keynote speech at an event hosted by the Institute for Women’s Health and the International Human Rights Group. “Every individual deserves to have their lives protected, from conception to natural death. … It is totally false that abortion is a human right. Any effort to try to impose abortion in a country is undue interference in international affairs. We seek to protect life and to prevent interference. We do not approve of abortion because of my faith but also my profession as a medical doctor. Life should be protected from conception.”
“We should not be demanded to adopt ideas that go against our beliefs, our faith, and our ideas, even if it costs getting invited to the White House,” he added.
