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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump Officials Pushed Abstinence For International Women's Health Programs
n closed-door meetings at the United Nations in March, Trump administration officials pushed socially conservative views on womens rights issues including abstinence-based policies over information about contraception that were further to the right than those expressed by most other countries present, including Russia and the representative for the Arab states, UN officials who attended the meetings told BuzzFeed News.
The Trump officials approach at the UN meeting makes it clear that the administration intends to extend its views on abortion, contraception, and sexual education beyond US borders to an extent that is unusual even for Republican administrations.
The comments came during the annual UN Commission on the Status of Women, a two-week session described by a spokesperson for the US Mission to the United Nations as the UNs most important meeting on womens empowerment. The main event is a closed-door negotiation on language to include in an annual UN document that sets global standards and outlines potential policies pertaining to gender equality efforts in all member countries.
Early in this series of meetings, Bethany Kozma a senior adviser for gender equality and womens empowerment at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and anti-transgender activist emphasized that the US was a pro-life nation, sparking a strong reaction from delegates in the room, two officials in the room confirmed to BuzzFeed News.
When she said that there was sort of a record scratch and silence, one UN official who participated in the negotiations but asked not to be named so as to maintain a working relationship with the other member states present told BuzzFeed News. Everyone was like, are you kidding me?
Shannon Kowalski, the director of the International Womens Health Coalition, said that the Trump administrations stances on womens health presented in the meeting were further to the right than they were at last years commission, or even under George W. Bushs administration. While the Bush administration implemented anti-abortion policies abroad, the scope was limited to family planning programs. Trumps policies already expand beyond those limits.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/emaoconnor/un-meeting-trump-administration-abstinence?utm_term=.leB40EyXj#.ulnW7dGNP
bdtrppr6
(796 posts)ACTUAL FUCK is going on?
i'm lost, done, confused, and completely unable to compute any part of any threads of news happening from day to day.
the Firehose Of Bullshit has done blasted me into oblivion.
truly just, WHAT?!
LastLiberal in PalmSprings
(12,586 posts)Or rather, pushing their Calvinistic sexual phobias on the civilized world. These guys are always worried that somewhere someone (especially women) are enjoying a sexual encounter.
dawg day
(7,947 posts)My aunt (devout Catholic) wouldn't use contraception because, you know, the pope said not to.
She had 10 babies in 14 years. That's what happens when you don't use birth control (and you're having sex, as she presumably was with Uncle).
All these "pro-life" spokespersons and abstinence advocates, if they have less than 7 children, I think they're, well, not practicing what they preach.
And what's really infuriating is that in other countries, contraception and abortion are vital to women's health, quite literally. Death during pregnancy or delivery is not rare in countries without developed health care and sanitation. (Heck, even my devout aunt, after the last birth almost killed her, decided on a "medical" hysterectomy which was okay with the pope while the pill was not.)
But you know, accusing the Trumpsters of hypocrisy is like smacking water for being wet. To be for Trump is to be a hypocrite.
Solly Mack
(90,773 posts)appleannie1943
(1,303 posts)Do they think only unmarried women don't want to get pregnant?