NEW YORK (C-Fam) The deck was stacked against the unborn as 2022 came around. Pro-lifers expected a gradual retreat from traditional countries. But that is not what happened. Traditional countries stood their ground against an onslaught from the United States and the European Union.
1. U.S. Supreme Court reverses Roe v. Wade, implicitly denying human right to abortion
UN officials and experts were sent in a tailspin as the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a historic ruling that returned abortion to the American people fifty years after it declared a constitutional right to abortion-on-demand. The court set an example of judicial restraint against abortion activism that is already having an effect on the global abortion debate. A slew of panicked pro-abortion international bodies complained about the ruling, including the UN population fund, UN human rights officials, many UN bureaucrats, and even the European Union. The court stopped short of saying the unborn are worthy of legal protection, as C-Fam told the court in an amicus brief last year, but nevertheless denied a human right to abortion by ignoring the claims of UN actors who told the court abortion is an international right.
[Click here to subscribe to Pregnancy Help News!]
2. The great UN pushback against abortion and gender ideology
Traditional countries were galvanized in opposing abortion and gender ideology this year. Sixty-two countries revolted against the European Union, the Biden government, and other powerful Western countries in the UN General Assembly. The countries attempted to remove controversial language on abortion, homosexuality, and transgenderism in a resolution in the Fall. Their attempt failed but the vote showed there is no consensus at the United Nations on these issues. This was just one of many battles where traditional countries thwarted the sexual left. They blocked gender ideology at the World Health Assembly, and at the World Food Programme. They blocked efforts to sexualize children in the General Assembly. And they spoke out repeatedly and eloquently against abortion and gender ideology. They have been so outspoken and so successful that UN Secretary Antonio Guterres and powerful Western countries are complaining all the time about the “pushback” against gender ideology.
3. Guatemala’s President Alejandro Giammattei lambasts pro-abortion global bureaucrats
In an unprecedented speech at the Headquarters of the Organization of American States, Guatemala’s president, Alejandro Giammattei, accused the Inter-American Human Rights Commission of “extortion” to promote abortion and transgender ideology. Giammattei’s passionate speech against ideological overreach by international bureaucrats was received by emphatic and sustained applause by Ambassadors at the Organization for American States. Giammattei is a pro-life hero with a remarkable personal story, and Guatemala was rightly recognized as the pro-life capital of the Americas earlier in the year. He leaves office this year.
4. Traditional Countries win at UN Population Commission
Western diplomats took a rain check on an all-out battle to push homosexuality and transgenderism and other controversial social policies at the UN Commission on Population and Development. They gave up on adding new language to promote abortion, homosexuality, transgender issues, and sexual autonomy for children in the commission’s agreement early this week. The remarkable result showed that resisting the abortion and homosexual/trans agenda is effective in the long run. The commission failed to reach an agreement in six of its past eight sessions thanks to strong resistance from traditional countries.
5. Pro-life Senators block radical pro-abortion professor from top State Department job
Senate Republicans unanimously blocked the confirmation of Columbia law professor Sarah Cleveland, President Biden’s nominee for Legal Advisor at the Department of State for aggressively promoting abortion internationally while serving on a UN human rights body. If she had been confirmed in the U.S. Senate, Cleveland would have streamlined abortion activism in the State Department’s legal office. Blocking her sends a clear message to pro-abortion legal experts that international abortion activism is a bar to high office in the U.S. government. The Biden administration is now trying to get Cleveland on the highest court of the world to promote abortion there. That battle has just begun.
Editor's note: Stefano Gennarini writes for C-Fam. This article first appeared in the Friday Fax, an internet report published weekly by C-Fam (Center for Family & Human Rights), a New York and Washington DC-based research institute. This article appears with permission.
