The UnGodly UN

Colombia: UN commission demands end of legal ban on abortion
Weekend News Today
By Staff Writer
Source: CWNews.com
Sat Feb 6 , 1999 -- A United Nations commission investigating discrimination against women called on Colombia on Thursday to end its legal ban on abortion to bring the country into compliance with international conventions. The 23-member commission, which monitors compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, said Colombian women were receiving illegal abortions despite the ban. One commission member cited a recent study that 26 out of 100 women attending universities had undergone abortions, and one out of every three women who had ever been pregnant had admitted to having them. Abortion was a medical procedure, she said, and thus, its legal prohibition was discriminatory. They concluded that, despite political violence and natural disasters, "overturning the prohibition on abortion is something it could do automatically and without delay." ______________________________________________________________

Vatican Warns International Summit About Abortion
THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- A U.N. population conference must not create an implied right to abortion, the Vatican warned Wednesday. ``There can be no surreptitious recognition of a right to abortion through policies aimed at creating new categories of personal rights or including health services which supposedly protect women's lives by making possible `safe abortion,' '' Holy See delegate Monsignor Frank Dewane told The Hague Forum. Delegations from 180 countries are meeting to assess progress in implementing a pro-abortion program to slow world population growth that was drawn up at a 1994 conference in Cairo, Egypt. Although the Vatican fought hard in Cairo to defend its traditional opposition to abortion, it had been conspicuously quiet until now at the Hague meeting, which began Monday. Dewane criticized the use of the dangerous RU-486 drug as an abortive practice ``camouflaged as a means of contraception.'' Dewane's comments on abortion were in stark contrast to repeated calls by pro-abortion delegates this week to make abortions available to women around the world. In a speech Tuesday, Hillary Clinton said all women should have access to abortion. The key paragraph on abortion in the Cairo program of action calls on governments to deal with ``unsafe abortion as a major public health concern.'' The Vatican said at the time that such phrasing could legitimize abortion and neglects the ``safety'' of the unborn child. Pro-life leaders have further demonstrated that abortion is not safe for the mother either. The conference runs until Friday. --