Pro-family groups score UN victories
By Samantha Singson
The Interim
As the gavel came down and ended the annual two-week Commission on the Status of Women meeting, pro-life and pro-family advocates were able to smile and breathe a sigh of relief.
Things seemed bleak at the beginning of negotiations, when the UN released a draft document that was filled with language that might be used to promote a "right" to abortion. But thanks to the tireless work and unrelenting pressure from the United States delegation, controversial language relating to "reproductive and sexual rights" for boys, girls and women were removed from the final document.
The term "gender stereotype" also caused heated debates. When the U.S. fought to have motherhood and fatherhood explicitly recognized as an exemption to the definition of stereotype, they were jeered at and cut off by the Canadian chairperson. U.S. persistence paid off, however, and the term was struck from the final document.
