While abortion proponents worldwide continue to push abortion as “women's healthcare,” a U.S.-based organization is advocating on the national stage for authentic health policy and care for women.
Refuting the distortion of women's healthcare as encompassing abortion is a main priority for the Institute for Women's Health, said Valerie Huber, founder, president, and CEO.
Headquartered in Washington D.C., the Institute for Women’s Health (IWH) advocates for the health and wellbeing of women at all stages of life, according to the group’s website, and works to address women’s health issues via discourse, action, and alliances.
Huber and her team promote all aspects of genuine women’s health, both domestically and globally, by empowering women to thrive and achieve optimal health outcomes. As such, IWH’s work has the potential to positively affect pregnancy help worldwide.
The issue of women’s health often gets caught up in divisive policy debates during foreign policy negotiations,” according to the IWH, where certain nations will apply pressure to other countries, “using a form of diplomatic blackmail that threatens real health gains for women around the world.”
The Institute was founded to advocate for real, measurable health gains around the world. The purpose is "reclaiming the narrative that has been 'co-opted' by abortion advocates, by showcasing the truth that abortion is not healthcare and does not empower women," Huber said.
The belief that women are their integral to the family lays the groundwork for the IWH’s work, along with the fact that healthy families are crucial for a healthy society.
“Healthy women are the foundation for healthy families, and healthy families are essential to the health of our communities and societies,” the group states. “Together, we can ensure a lasting and positive global health legacy for women, our children, our families, and our nations.”
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Before forming the Institute for Women's Health, Huber served as the Special Representative for Global Women’s Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Global Affairs, where she promoted global women’s health priorities. As Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs, Senior Policy Advisor, and Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary of Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Huber worked in domestic women’s and adolescent health issues.
In October 2020, the Institute initiated the Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family (GCD).
The Geneva Consensus Declaration is a document that “backs a strategic international coalition made up of 37 nations,” according to the IWH. “First signed in 2020 and reaffirmed in 2021, the document seeks to protect the sovereign right of nations to support their own core values through national policy and legislation.”
The GCD prioritizes the promotion of good health policy for women and affirms that there is no international human right to abortion. The family is emphasized as foundational to society in the document, citing internationally agreed upon documents.
While the document was completed under former President Donald Trump with the U.S. among the signing countries, President Joe Biden withdrew the U.S. from the Declaration soon after taking office.
The Biden administration, known to many as the most pro-abortion in U.S. history, has also pressured the country of Benin to withdraw from the GCD, according to the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-FAM).
Huber has said that Biden “repeatedly has made Orwellian attempts to erase the declaration from international historical record altogether.”
This past fall Members of Congress urged Biden to re-join the GCD. A joint resolution introduced by Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Steve Daines (R-MT) did such in November 2022.
“Oklahomans know that every life is precious,” Lankford said in a statement, “and signing onto the Geneva Consensus Declaration Resolution signifies that the U.S. supports promoting women’s health and strengthening families.”
“The Geneva Consensus Declaration is not just a piece of paper,” Daines said, “it’s a family of nations anchored in the universal principles of life, family and national sovereignty.”
Daines went on to say that Biden’s withdrawal from the Declaration did not mark the end of the American commitment to protecting life and family.
The Biden administration has not responded to the resolution.
Recently a two-year celebration of the Geneva Consensus Declaration was held.
In an editorial for The Hill, Huber remarked on the second anniversary commemoration of the document and said that despite the Biden administration’s opposition to the document, “the GCD continues to flourish.”
"Ambassadors, members of Congress, members of Parliament and women’s health advocates from all over the world gathered to celebrate the signatory nations’ reaffirmed commitment to the GCD’s principles,” Huber said. “At the event, it was announced that a new nation, Kazakhstan, has joined the alliance, showing the coalition is continuing to grow, with the hope of welcoming many more in the coming year."
Huber went on to stress the value of the declaration.
"The GCD is an essential tool in the ongoing struggle to defend the sovereign right of nations to protect women’s health and thriving in a way that preserves human dignity and a respect for all life,” she said.
It represents a commitment to the protection and cultivation of women, children and families, she said, and is public commitment that helps nations resist policy language used to smuggle political agendas in “where they’re clearly unwanted.”
“It’s also an essential part of building a pro-woman and pro-family future,” Huber said.
The Institute for Women’s Health will be part of a panel discussion at the United Nations later this week as part of the 67th Commission on the Status of Women.
Titled, “How Embracing the Geneva Consensus Declaration Advances the Well-being of Families, Women, and Girls,” the event will examine how programs focused on holistic primary and maternal healthcare meet women’s needs. The event is also set to highlight how “pro-life policies safeguard the dignity of women and girls and promotes optimal health outcomes by protecting their emotional and physical well-being.”
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