U.S. Drops Anti-Abortion Demand at Forum
By THE NEW YORK TIMES from the Web, March 3, 2005
UNITED NATIONS, March 2 -- The United States on Wednesday dropped its contentious demand for a change in a centerpiece document of a United Nations conference on equality that had plunged the gathering of 6,000 women and government ministers into conflict.
The meeting of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women was called to review progress since its world conference 10 years ago in Beijing. The document was a one-page statement that delegates had prepared to reaffirm the closing declaration of the 1995 meeting.
But the United States proposed an amendment with wording saying it would agree to the principles in the declaration only after "reaffirming that they do not create any new international human rights, and that they do not include the right to abortion."
Adrienne Germain, the president of the International Women's Health Coalition, who was also a member of the United States delegation in Beijing, said the Beijing statement was a nonbinding declaration, not a treaty, and that no part of it could be construed as creating new human rights or the right to abortion.
On Wednesday, the leader of the United States delegation agreed to drop the requirement.
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