Pro-Life Intelligence, 23 May 2007

Culture war in evidence at the World Health Assembly

Pat Buckley, lobbying on behalf of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, has sent the following report.

The World Health Assembly (WHA) is currently underway in Geneva, Switzerland. The WHA is the supreme decision-making body for the World Health Organisation (WHO). The WHA meets once a year and is attended by delegations from all of WHO's 192 member-states. The WHA's main function is to determine WHO policies.

The 'culture war' being waged in international institutions such as WHO and the United Nations (UN) has become clearly focused at the WHA.

On 15^th May, Thoraya Obaid, the head of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), alleged that poor sexual and reproductive health is a leading cause of death in the developing world. (It should be noted that WHO defines 'reproductive health' as including a right to abortion on demand.) According to WHO statistics, however, 84 per cent of deaths of women and girls worldwide are due to causes not related to sexual and reproductive health.

Obaid also claimed that the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly those related to health and gender equality, would not be achieved "unless greater attention is paid to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights".

In a plea to the gathered health ministers, Obaid sought the legalization of abortion and praised what she referred to as "the groundbreaking Maputo Plan of Action on sexual and reproductive health adopted by African Health Ministers last year". The Maputo Plan of action contains a strategy for the introduction of abortion throughout the African continent.

On 21^st May, Mrs Obaid's contribution was followed by a contribution by Dr. Margaret Chan, on the first anniversary of her appointment as WHO Director-General. Dr Chan outlined her goals as "the health of women and of the people of Africa."

Also on 21^st May, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the papal nuncio (Catholic Church ambassador) to WHO outlined in contrast a new vision of women's health, gender identity, and aid to Africa that, if followed, would mean a significant change of direction for WHO. "The Catholic Church", according to Archbishop Tomasi, "has traditionally been in the first line in the promotion of the authentic health of women, by helping them to harmonize their physical, psychological and social well-being with moral and spiritual values."

Archbishop Tomasi focused on the term 'gender identity', countering recent moves by powerful international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and special rapporteurs determined to reinterpret the term 'gender'. "The Holy See", he said, "wishes to invite the WHO member-states once again to understand the term 'gender' as grounded in biological sexual identity, male or female."

Archbishop Tomasi also spoke about safeguarding marriage and the family. "The Catholic Church", he said, "is also convinced of the God-given, equal, and complementary dignity of women and men. The Catholic Church also prioritizes the most fruitful expression of complementarity between woman and man, that is the family, which is founded upon lifelong and mutually faithful marriage and which continues to serve as the mainstay of human society."

With reference to Dr. Chan's comments on the health of the people of Africa, Archbishop Tomasi said: "Many nations are still in the grip of famine, war, racial and tribal tensions, political instability and the violation of human rights." (Pope Benedict XVI's exhortation to the international community is also very appropriate: "We must not forget Africa.")

In closing, Archbishop Tomasi told the Assembly: "My delegation urges a perspective on health security that is grounded on an anthropology respectful of the human person in his or her integrity and looks far beyond the absence of disease to the full harmony and sound balance of the physical, emotional, spiritual and social forces within the human person."