[fcb-l] Wonder What Else is in the Treaty?

[Don Moore]

Hidden Abortion Agenda in UN Convention on Disability Rights
by
Bill Saunders and Stephanie Maloney
| LifeNews.com | 7/20/12 10:20 AM

Senator John Kerry (D-MA), Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, 
is calling for a vote by July 26 on the Convention on the Rights of Persons 
with Disabilities (CRPD)-just two months after President Obama sent the 
treaty to the Senate. Despite its attractive and seemingly innocuous title, 
the CRPD represents yet another push to ensconce abortion rights in an 
international treaty.

>From a cursory reading, the international treaty appears to deserve the 
broad bipartisan Senate support it has received. Its stated purpose is to 
"promote, protect, and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human 
rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to 
promote respect for their inherent dignity."[1] It strives to implement 
greater equality and legal protection, better health care access, and a 
higher standard of living for the disabled around the world. Signed by 153 
countries and ratified by 117, it purports to combat the stigma and negative 
stereotypes that face the millions of people with intellectual and 
development disabilities.

Yet a nuanced reading exposes the more subtle and invidious abortion agenda 
of the treaty. Specifically, Article 25 of the Convention requires States 
Parties to: "[p]rovide persons with disabilities with the same range, 
quality, and standard of free or affordable health care and programs as 
provided to other persons, including in the area of sexual and reproductive 
health and population-based public health programmes."[2]

The inclusion of the phrase "reproductive health" affords an opportunity for 
abortion advocates to interpret the terms as a euphemism for "abortion 
rights" and push for nations to legalize abortion based on the treaty. 
Indeed, this interpretation of "reproductive health" is the position of the 
Obama Administration. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has testified before 
the House Foreign Affairs Committee to this effect, stating "We happen to 
think that family planning is an important part of women's health, and 
reproductive health includes access to abortion."[3]

Unwilling to be explicit and clear about its objectives, the pro-abortion 
faction within the UN has used the realm of disability rights to provide 
cover for an attempt to interject the right to abortion into an 
international treaty. If the US ratifies it, the treaty becomes the law of 
the land, providing a potential abortion back-up for the day the Supreme 
Court finally overturns Roe v. Wade.

Human dignity is not something to be "awarded" on the basis of one's 
capacities and abilities. Rather it is inherent and inviolable, part of the 
very nature of the human person, whatever his or her state of physical and 
mental development. The dignity of the person is universal, and must be 
upheld, equally, for all. It is sadly ironic that a treaty aimed at securing 
recognition of the dignity of some (the disabled) would be written so as to 
put at jeopardy the dignity of others (the unborn).

The inclusion of Article 25 within the CRPD should prevent the United States 
Senate from ratifying the treaty. Americans United for Life urges all 
pro-life supporters to contact their United States Senators and ask them to 
oppose the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with 
Disabilities.

[1] Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, art. 1.

2 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, art. 25(a) 
(emphasis added).

3 Hearing, New Beginnings: Foreign Policy Priorities in the Obama 
Administration, Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives, 
111th Cong., 1st Sess., 22 April 2009, at 
http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/111/48841.pdf.

http://www.lifenews.com/2012/07/20/hidden-abortion-agenda-in-un-convention-on-disability-rights/