Call to legalize abortion

BERLIN—A conference here made a breakthrough Sunday after delegates approved in plenary to ask the United Nations’ 179 members to legalize abortion as a mode of family planning, provide universal access to contraceptives, and uphold sex workers’ rights.

Delegates to The Global NGO Forum on Sexual, Reproductive Health and Development approved the “Berlin Call to Action,” which demands that countries adhere to the UN’s Medium Development Goals by reducing population growth, ending poverty, bringing down maternal and infant death rates, eradicating discrimination against girls, ensuring access to education for all, and advancing gender equality.

Four-hundred delegates from 131 countries attended the three-day conference at the Hotel Estrel-Berlin, which was hosted by the German government and the United Nations Population Fund and supported by the McArthur Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Berlin Call to Action is to be submitted to UN member-countries for deliberation and as a reminder for them to work faster in achieving population and development goals by 2015.

The covenant demanded that governments reform laws and policies to protect and promote sexual reproductive rights, which it says are central to achieving the highest attainable level of health.

The covenant also demanded the repeal of restrictive and punitive laws and policies that deny access to information and services for sexual and reproductive health and rights, as well as those that criminalize the transmission of HIV and abortion.

“We have no hope of reaching the [UN’s Medium Development Goals by 2015] if 50 percent of the world’s people are not afforded equal opportunities,” said Helen Clarke, former prime minister of New Zealand and now UNDP administrator.

She regretted a recent UN report that showed that the institution’s goal on improving maternal health lagged further behind.

“That speaks volumes about the low status still of women in far too many countries around the world,” she said.

Still, all but one of the Philippines’ delegates—they were Benjamin de Leon, president of the Forum for Family Planning and Development; Sylvia Estrada-Claudio, chairman of the Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights; Junice Melgar, executive director of the Linangan ng Kababaihan; Malyn Ando of Arrow, and Vincent Abrigo of the Youth Coalition—said they were happy with the covenant.

“The bottom lines include access to safe and legal abortion, sexual rights, adequate funding for health programs despite the economic crisis, and strong language protecting the rights of young people,” Estrada-Claudio said.

But De Leon was worried that the Catholic Church in the Philippines would use the covenant’s stand on abortion to block the passage of the Reproductive Health Bill in Congress.

Melgar was not fazed.

“We are not bothered by the Church’s position because we have studies to show that more than 70 percent of Catholics want the bill passed,” she said.

“President Arroyo should not renege on the Philippine government’s commitment and take heed… that rapid population growth is now putting a serious dent on the government’s meager resources.” –Christine F. Herrera, Manila Standard Today