In September 2016, the United Nations held its first ever Summit for Refugees and Migrants. During that meeting, the assembly adopted the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. According to a press release, the Declaration’s alleged purpose is to “express the political will of world leaders to save lives, protect rights, and share responsibility on a global scale.”
The commitments contained in the Declaration include to “protect the human rights of all refugees and migrants, regardless of status,” to “prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence.”
But Section 31 of the Declaration seemingly contradicts the basic human right of life. This section guarantees access to sexual and reproductive health-care services.” Abortion is considered by most in the assembly to be a “reproductive health-care service.”
The population fund portion of the United Nations’ website states good sexual and reproductive health means “that people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life, the capability to reproduce, and the freedom to decide if, when, and how often to do so.” This is not unlike Planned Parenthood’s desire to “enable Americans to access comprehensive reproductive and sexual health care, education, and information,” stated prominently on the “about us” section of their website. Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion provider.
According to the State Department, “the United States fully supported this Summit and believes today’s high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly is complementary to President Obama’s Leaders’ Summit on Refugees.”
The purpose of the New York Declaration is to establish methods of safe migration in 2018. However, as Life News noted, “Such a plan will not be safe for unborn children and may conflict with our current national laws if abortion remains part of it.”
Instead of providing safe healthcare to women and refugees in other nations, the New York Declaration will do just the opposite if they follow practices similar to Planned Parenthood.
As an example, according to its own numbers, the nation’s largest abortion chain commits 160 abortions for every adoption referral. Planned Parenthood also claims to be an important provider of breast exams to women, making it seem that if the organization did not exist, women would struggle to find basic health care services. In reality, Planned Parenthood commits 30.6 percent of the nation’s abortions, while providing less than 2 percent of the nation’s breast exams.
Refugee and migrant women need and deserve to have access to the most stellar health and reproductive care, but the provisions contained in the New York Declaration regrettably fail to meet those standards.
