By Beth Griffin
Catholic News Service
UNITED NATIONS – Reproductive health policy should be informed by accurate data, not polarising ideology, and illuminated by moral values and an ethical framework that respects the dignity of women, according to speakers at a 24 February UN event.
The panel, Advancing the Well-Being of Women and Children, was held in conjunction with the 55th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. It was sponsored by the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations, the Permanent Mission of St Lucia to the UN and the Path to Peace Foundation.
Monique Chireau, assistant professor at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, described women’s reproductive health as a gender, development and human rights issue. She said reproductive health is sometimes contemporary code for health care and education that includes abortion under the guise of family planning.
Chireau said she preferred alternate terminology.
“Reproductive health is a state of freedom from destructive activities and practices that compromise a woman’s health, well-being and dignity, such as abortion. It includes the provision of services and knowledge that promote women’s health, dignity and well-being as well as that of her family. The rights of women are inextricably connected to the rights of their children,” she said.
“The ultimate reproductive right of women is the right to say no to destructive practices and influences, to be able to protect her children, and to strive for optimal health and well-being for herself and her family,” Chireau said.
Chireau said some of the papers presented at the current U.N. session separate the rights of girls from those of their parents and families. In fact, programs that strengthen families promote development and human rights, she said.
Globally, there has been a decrease in maternal mortality, the number of women who die during pregnancy and childbirth. Chireau said this welcome trend correlates to increased education and income, better birth care and a decrease in the number of children women bear. It is not related to increased access to abortion and contraception.
“Maternal mortality is not necessarily higher in countries with more restrictive abortion laws,” she said.
Chireau also said contraception and abortion are receiving more attention at the current U.N. session than two other common and devastating causes of maternal deaths – female genital mutilation and obstetric fistulas. Fistula, a complication of childbirth and obstructed labor, can be caused by genital mutilation. She said there is profit in providing abortion and contraception, both of which are supported by ideological agendas. By contrast, she said, “women who suffer fistula have no voice.”
Helen Alvare, associate professor of law at George Mason University in Arlington, Va., said the separation of sexual intimacy from marriage and procreation over the past 50 years has not significantly improved the well-being of women and girls. She said since the contraceptive “pill” was introduced in 1960, births outside marriage and abortions have both increased, as have sexually transmitted infections.
Separating sex from marriage has led to higher rates of cohabitation worldwide, either as a substitute or precursor to marriage, she said. Women do not necessarily consider this a “gain” she said, citing studies that measure happiness.
Alvare said separating parenting from marriage has impoverished single mothers, particularly immigrants and minorities.
She said historical notions of reproductive rights, individualistic ideas of freedom, late 20th-century feminist assumptions and same-sex marriage activism have prevented an open, empirical inquiry on the state of women flourishing in connection with sexual expression, marriage and parenting.
Alvare advocated a “new feminism that looks at data and gives an honest response to it, allowing an important role for communities of faith and other ethical communities which have … sacred meanings of human communion, family life and parent-child relationships that can get women and children out of the cycles they’re presently in.”
Lynne Lang, curriculum development manager at BJC Healthcare in St. Louis, described the effects of advanced technology on the education of women and children. She urged development of critical thinking among young Internet users to assess the truth and value of information and communication in cyberspace.
Lynne said particular attention should be devoted to protecting vulnerable users from predators and bullies.
The program attracted a standing-room-only crowd of more than 150 people and was the first side event sponsored by the Holy See’s U.N. mission since Archbishop Francis Chullikatt became papal nuncio in September 2010.
After the discussion, Archbishop Chullikatt told Catholic News Service, “I am particularly happy because we touched on one of the most important issues we church people have to address: the life issue. It is clear what is at stake. The panelists made the point that we cannot manipulate the issue of abortion for political ends.”