Editor’s note. This was posted Tuesday on the website of The Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues.
It is a well-known fact that certain treaty body committees at the United Nations are notorious for distorting the meaning of a treaty and telling countries they must legalize abortion in order to be in accordance with the treaty. Now, such tactics are underway at the Organization of American States (OAS).
A resolution at the OAS General Assembly meeting that took place last week in Antigua included a call for countries to “Implement the recommendations of the MESECVI to encourage full compliance with the Convention of Belém do Pará”. The MESECVI-the Mechanism to Follow Up on Implementation of the Convention-is the body that monitors compliance of State Parties with the regionalInter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women, commonly known as “Belém do Pará”.
A number of the recommendations, if implemented, would result in the overturning of pro-life laws and policies and were issued by the MESECVI in its Second Hemispheric Report on the implementation of Belém do Pará despite the fact that the treaty does not mention abortion. In the report the MESECVI called for legislation to:
“Legalize interruption of pregnancy on therapeutic grounds, that is to say, to save the life of the mother or avoid serious or permanent injury to her physical and mental health.
Legalize the interruption of pregnancy caused by rape.
Adopt provisions to guarantee the free distribution of emergency contraceptives.
It also called for the establishment of “free specialized services for women victims of violence and their children…integral health services that include sexual and reproductive health care as well as legal interruption of pregnancy.”
Guatemala, host country for the meeting, demonstrated strong pro-life leadership by adding a pro-life footnote to the resolution reaffirming its sovereign law against abortion: “The State of Guatemala declares that, pursuant to its national legislation, it recognizes the right to life from the moment of conception.”
The push for abortion by the MESECVI contradicts the Inter American Convention on Human Rights which protects the right to life from conception in Article 4: “Every person has the right to have his life respected. This right shall be protected by law and, in general, from the moment of conception. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.”
The pro-abortion actions and recommendations of the MESECVI appear to be unknown to many State Parties to the Convention, perhaps not even to the resolution’s sponsors. It is regrettable and tragic that the MESECVI has veered away from its mandate to work to stop violence against women and is instead trying to change sovereign laws against abortion.
Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean ought to remind the MESECVI that its job is to stop violence against women and not to advocate for the violence of abortion which not only destroys the life of the innocent child but inflicts additional trauma on the victimized woman.
Legalizing and legitimizing an act of violence does nothing to change cultural attitudes that view women as commodities to be used and abused.
Women deserve measures that make their lives safer and that promote respect for the value of their lives and that of their children. Women deserve better than abortion.