by Ben Johnson
NEW YORK, November 14, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – For the first time in its history, a United Nations agency, UNFPA, has declared access to contraception “a human right.”
The United Nations.
“Family planning is a human right. It must therefore be available to all who want it,” declares the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) annual report. “But clearly this right has not yet been extended to all.”
The report calls on nations of the world to fight “cultural barriers,” as well as legal constraints, that cause women to forgo the use of birth control.
“What is to stop the UNFPA from declaring that abortion is a basic ‘human right,’ as they have already attempted to do several times, especially in light of the relentless UN drive to legalize abortion all over the world?” ask Brian Clowes, director of research for Human Life International, in an e-mail to LifeSiteNews.com.
The report does not explicitly call for abortion legalization. However, it considers “emergency contraception” a human right, stating it “is not effective once implantation has begun and does not cause abortion.” However, the report adds, “A single emergency contraceptive pill, when taken within up to five days after unprotected intercourse, prevents a fertilized egg from implanting.”
The global population body has participated in China’s one-child policy.
The UNFPA paper suggests widespread use of intrauterine devices (IUDs), which act as an abortifacient. The traditional birth control pill also thins the uterine lining, making it impossible for an embryo to implant.
UNFPA claims that widespread contraceptive use will decrease abortion, although numerous scholars have debunked the notion.
Declaring birth control a right means “everyone else must pay for…the new right” Clowes told LifeSiteNews, “even if those forced to pay for it may object to it on moral grounds. This violates the more basic human right of freedom of conscience, which has for some time now been dispensed with by UN ‘human rights’ champions.”
The UNFPA estimates “222 million women have an unmet need for contraception” and that providing this “need” will cost $4.1 billion.
Providing such funds, the report states, “would save approximately $5.7 billion in maternal and newborn health services” – an argument similar to that made by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in the United States.
The classification of contraception comes as the United States has earned a seat on the UN Human Rights Council.
“The right to family planning is one that many have had to fight for and still today requires advocacy,” the report states.
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