U.N. Group Stands Up for Children's Sexual and Reproductive Rights, Including Abortion

U.N. Group Stands Up for Children's Sexual and Reproductive Rights, Including Abortion
Thursday, July 28, 2011
By Tierney Smith

(CNSNews.com) – Y-PEER, a youth initiative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), says "more needs to be done to ensure young people's sexual and reproductive rights" -- especially "the right to choose," a reference to abortion.

The statement also says all young people globally have the "right to confidentiality" and the right to "be free from judgment."

Tyler Ament of Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) told CNSNews.com, "The statement doesn't mention the age specifically, but the UN defines youth as those between the ages of 10-24."

The U.N.-affiliated group also issued what U.N. analysts say is a call for the decriminalization of prostitution and drug use.

The “Joint Youth Statement on the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Young People” was released in preparation for the U.N. Youth Conference, which began Monday in New York.

“In order to fully recognise young people’s sexual and reproductive rights, especially the right to choose, we must achieve universal access to safe and youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health care services, including access to evidence-based comprehensive sexuality education, in formal and non-formal settings,” the document states.

The phrase “reproductive health care services” includes abortion, which the statement further underscores.

“Young women’s health is threatened by policies and services that do not provide life-saving access to family planning and contraception," the Y-PEER document said. “It is vital to implement key effective measures in the continuum of care for maternal health, including access to safe abortion.”

It further stated: “The rights of marginalized young people, including those who are living with HIV, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, young men who have sex with men, sex workers, injecting drug users, disabled youth, young people in crisis situations and other vulnerable youth continue to be violated through policies and programmes that criminalize them and ignore their specific needs.”

Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., said the statement constitutes an endorsement of prostitution. He also said the statements are shocking, especially because they come from a United Nations-affiliated organization.

"I think the plain implication of this statement is that ‘sex workers,’ which is a euphemism for prostitutes, and injecting drug users should not be criminalized, which means, presumably, that their conduct should not be criminalized,” Sprigg told CNSNews.com. “So, yes, I think this is a statement calling for the legalization of prostitution and drugs, and it’s shocking that any -- you know, that any self-respecting international organizations would endorse that idea."

Paul Rondeau, director of communications for the American Life League, said the statement reveals that the United Nations has a pro-abortion agenda for children.

“The United Nations has become the unsupervised playground and laboratory of the sex-industrial complex,” Rondeau told CNSNews.com.

“Organizations like UNESCO, International Planned Parenthood, and now Y-PEERS demand more sexual rights and more abortions as the solutions to more HIV infections and more abortions for the ever-younger victims they pretend to serve," he said.

Y-PEERS did not respond to attempts by CNSNews.com to obtain comment. The organization describes itself as “a network of young people from dozens of countries and hundreds of youth clubs and organizations, with thousands of members around the globe. We work to mobilize youth about issues related to sexual and reproductive health and rights.”

Rondeau said the organization appears to be “one more front group -- wittingly or otherwise -- for sex-based profiteers and cultural revolutionaries posing as concerned global citizens.”

“Within the statement absolutely stuffed with gobbledygook, it calls for disordered sexual behavior, prostitution, and IV drug use to be decriminalized,” he said. “Yet the leading cause of the spread of AIDS is sexual promiscuity followed by sharing needles in IV drug use. So, who benefits from decriminalizing these behaviors: youth or sexual health agencies, providers, and pharmaceutical companies?”

Ament said these statements show that the U.N. is clearly focused on pushing a sexuality agenda instead of focusing on the real problems that youth face.

“The statement says that the U.N.'s youth agenda isn't really focused on the fundamental needs of youth,” he told CNSNews.com. “Most of the youth they focus on are youth in developing countries, and developing countries still don't have good access to water, basic health care, and jobs. Thousands of children die every day because of malaria, and the majority of maternal deaths occur in developing countries. Shouldn't these be higher priority development items than ‘sex rights’?”

Regarding confidentiality for youth, Ament pointed out that 10-year-olds naturally rely on their parents for most things.

“This has been the way to do things since humans have been around,” Ament said. “If non-governmental sex rights groups can convince a 10-year-old that their parents don't really have what it takes to care for their ‘sexual health needs’ and then have the law to back up their manipulation, the negative consequences are many.”

Rondeau added: “Offering confidentiality to minors not only violates parents’ rights, it protects sex offenders, rapists, molesters, and child sex traffickers. It also exposes the child to additional exploitation. This is well documented in the United States where Planned Parenthood has been caught on video ignoring mandatory reporting laws on suspected rape or child abuse and coaching young girls to lie on admission forms. All this is done under the guise of serving and protecting youth. Of course, these same girls then come back for contraceptives and abortions all without parental knowledge or law enforcement removing them from high-risk environments.”