Inaccurate Reporting Distorts Bush Administration's Position on Population and Development Issues.(fifth Asian Pacific Population Conference)

Press reports emanating from the recent preparatory meeting for the Fifth Asian Pacific Population Conference have totally distorted the Bush Administration's positions regarding previous UN conferences. This is particularly true for the 1994 Cairo Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and its five-year follow-up.

Headlines scream that the Bush Administration is "threatening to pull out of a landmark United Nations population accord." Not only is the reporting inaccurate, it can only be described as both partisan and sensational. Rather than deal with the real Bush Administration position, many stories obviously took their cues from pro-abortionists such as Tim Wirth (Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs in the Clinton Administration). Starting with the ICPD, Wirth was the initial enforcer and possibly the architect of the Clinton Administration's drive to make abortion a fundamental human right worldwide through these international accords.

In truth, what the Bush Administration said last month in Bangkok, Thailand, is nothing new. It is consistent with stands taken during negotiations for the Child Summit that started in 2001 and ended in May 2002, the World Health Assembly in May 2002, and the August/September 2002 World Summit for Sustainable Development.

The Bush Administration has steadfastly refused to unequivocally accept or reaffirm language in these documents that could be construed to include or promote abortion. It has been successful in modifying, defining, or eliminating the offensive language related to abortion.

It is these successes and the refusal to go back to the position promoted by the Clinton Administration that explains the overheated rhetoric.

A source in the U.S. delegation who was in Bangkok told NRL News that they "did not ever say that they were in any sense withdrawing from ICPD" which, despite its serious flaws, contains a great deal of meaningful and positive elements. These include the promotion of the human rights of women, an emphasis on a holistic approach to health care, on education, and on the elimination of poverty. Clearly, the Bush Administration would not want to back away from any of these goals.

The delegation only said that it would be difficult for the U.S. to totally reaffirm the ICPD due to its abortion-related language. The ICPD was one of a number of documents listed for reaffirmation at the Bangkok meeting. It included the even more troublesome five-year follow-up to the ICPD-- "Cairo +5" -- which, in addition to reiterating much of the ICPD abortion language, contains language which calls for the training and equipping of health care providers to ensure that abortion is accessible. (It did not even contain a conscience clause.)