Topline
The Trump Administration signed an anti-abortion declaration with 32 member states in the United Nations on Thursday, many of which are authoritarian regimes or seen as flawed democracies, a move which drastically reframes U.S. foreign policy ahead of the presidential election.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a press conference on August 12, 2020 in Prague, Czech … [+] Republic.
(Photo by Gabriel Kuchta/Getty Images)
Key Facts
The Geneva Consensus Declaration calls on nations to “promote the rights of women and strengthen the family,” but stresses there is “no international right to abortion.”
The declaration was cosponsored by the U.S., Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, Brazil and Uganda.
Other signatories include Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and the Democratic Republic of Congo, all of which are classified as authoritarian regimes in The Economist’s 2019 Democracy Index.
The declaration says both men and women should enjoy civil, political and economic rights and opportunities, but “in no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning.”
National sovereignty “in global politics” was also strongly emphasized in the document, an area Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has stressed when confronted with international probes into “American Jurisdiction.”
Key Background
The Trump administration has been trying to garner support for the Geneva Consensus among U.N. member states since 2019, when the declaration had around 25 signatures, according to a memo obtained by the Guardian, but has made little headway. “We would like many more countries to join this Declaration in 2020 so that our mutual priorities in the multilateral space can succeed,” the memo read. The declaration is thematically similar to Pompeo’s commission on unalienable rights, which advocates for U.S. human rights policy to be tied to the nation’s founding documents of national sovereignty, private property and religious freedom.
Crucial Quote
“Under President Trump’s leadership, the United States has defended the dignity of human life everywhere and always. He’s done it like no other President in history,” Pompeo said at the signing of the declaration.
Chief Critic
“Today’s news marks another giant step backwards for the United States as it joins a list of countries willingly endangering people’s health and lives. The United States’ stance flies in the face of human rights and decades of health research. This is about people living full lives that are their own – not the lives that the government has prescribed for them,” Tarah Demant, the Director of the Gender, Sexuality, and Identity program at Amnesty International USA told Forbes.