A rather astonishing piece of news went through, yesterday,
and nobody commented. the US has joined with a number of
'hard-on-women' governments to promote its agenda of family
values. The Trump administration does get things done...
* * *
source: Libération
author: Julien Lecot
translation: GoogleTranslate/doxa-louise
Thirty-two countries unite against the right to abortion
Alex Azar, the Trump administration's health secretary, at the Capitol in Washington on October 2. Photo J. Scott Applewhite. Reuters
In a joint declaration, the governments of the United States, Brazil and Hungary affirm their desire for national sovereignty on laws related to abortion.
Thirty-two countries unite against the right to abortion
"There is no international right to abortion, nor any obligation of states to finance or facilitate abortion" : 32 countries, including the United States, Brazil and Egypt, proudly co-signed a joint declaration which directly attacks the right to terminate pregnancy. This "declaration for women's health and family strengthening" , scheduled to be presented to the World Health Assembly which is held every year in Geneva, was unveiled this Thursday by Alex Azar, Mr. Health of the Trump administration, in a virtual ceremony .
Declaration praises 'traditional families'
Niched in the midst of progressive ideas such as access for women to "quality education" or to "the same chances of accessing a job as men", the text clearly affirms a desire to restrict the right to 'access abortion', under the pretext of "the well-being of women" and "preservation of human life". The declaration also does not fail to extol the merits of “traditional families” (meaning, heterosexual couples). Among the signatories, many African states. Also included are Indonesia or Pakistan, and on the European continent, Hungary and Poland.
"Some wealthy nations, and United Nations agencies, wrongly assert that abortion is a universal human right," said Alex Azar during the ceremony. The Secretary of Health advanc, flags waving on his back: "We affirm that governments have the sovereign right to create their own laws to protect innocent lives and to write their regulations on abortion."
Extreme conservative rhetoric
His speech finished, and after an intervention by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, video statements by representatives of the 32 signatory states were broadcast. "We defend the place of the family as the central unit of our society, and reaffirm our duty to protect life, from its conception" , says Ernesto Araujo, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil. Katalin Novak, Hungarian Minister for the Family, is indignant at a time when “the traditional values of our societies are constantly under attack” , while women are given “false obligations pushing them to compete. with men, and to give up the privilege of becoming mothers ” .
If this flourishing of conservative speeches is cause for concern, the declaration presented this Thursday has above all a symbolic value. It marks one more step in the war waged by some governments against abortion and LGBT minorities, such as in the United States where many states have tightened access to voluntary termination of pregnancy. Or, more recently in Poland, where it was declared unconstitutional to terminate in the event of malformation of the fetus .
Julien Lecot
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