Officials of the Trump administration yesterday attacked the International Conference on Population and Development, for allegedly deviating from its original principles of protecting life and family.
The officials claimed the Nairobi Summit promoted abortion as a family planning method instead of teaching young people to avoid sexual risks.
Valerie Huber, a special representative for global women's health, in the US department of health and human services, also claimed the conference used 'ambiguous' terms like sexual reproductive and health rights to promote abortion.
"There is no international right to abortion. In fact, international law clearly states everyone has a right to life," Valerie said in a press conference in Nairobi yesterday morning.
She read an unsigned statement, which she said was supported by the US, Uganda, Brazil, Belarus, Egypt, Poland, Hungary, St Lucia, Haiti and Senegal.
She said they opposed policies that aggressively limit population growth, which was already declining in many countries.
"Indeed in most regions of the world today, fertility is below population replacement rates. As a result family planning should focus on both the voluntary achievement of pregnancy as well as prevention of unwanted pregnancy," she said.
However, IB Petersen, the Permanent Representative of Denmark to the United Nations, said the US' stand was based on a misunderstanding.
"This (ICPD) is not a UN official summit. We are not having political discussions. We will have a dialogue with them on the issues, and we don't expect everyone to agree," he said at the summit.
The summit was organised by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), Denmark and Kenya.
Valerie— a well-known advocate for abstinence-only programmes — said the Trump administration still supports principles of the inaugural 1994 ICPD.
"We affirm the key foundational principles of the ICPD Programme of Action, including that everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person and that the family is the basic unit of society and as such should be strengthened," she said.
The press conference was attended by US Ambassador Kyle McCarter, Kiambu MP Jude Njomo and staunch Catholic MP Chris Wamalwa of Kiminini.
The US government stopped funding and supporting the UNFPA in 2017, after President Donald Trump came into power, creating a $69 million funding hole.
The current Republican administration, like previous such US governments, cited an amendment that prohibits foreign aid to an organisation that is involved in coercive abortion or involuntary sterilisation.
The UNFPA has denied being involved in this kind of work.
Over the years, the UN agency has helped bring down maternal deaths globally by 44 per cent.
The organisation still has the vision of ending all preventable maternal deaths, the unmet need for family planning and gender-based violence, by 2030.
On Tuesday, the UNFPA said it will cost the world $264 billion to achieve this goal by 2030.
The figure comes from a joint study by UNFPA and Johns Hopkins University, in collaboration with Victoria University, the University of Washington and Avenir Health.
“We now know the costs. These figures are a drop in the ocean compared to the dividend expected and the funds available. What we need next is the political will and financing to get the job done,” UNFPA Executive Director Natalia Kanem said.
The three-day ICPD ended yesterday.
