Antonia Tully, blogpost

The United Nations recently launched a $29 million appeal to help people on the island of St Vincent following the devastation caused by the eruption of La Soufriere volcano on 9 April 2021. This is a major humanitarian crisis, with volcanic ash also affecting thousands of people on Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada and Saint Lucia.

Why then, does my heart sink when I read that the UN and various of its offshoots are gathering around this disaster area: Organisations such as the Unites Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP)? Because underneath the benign surface of these groups you will find an abortion agenda.

Quick to rush in to work with local people and governments at times of disaster, these United Nations organisations are centre stage of the global abortion movement. Abortion vultures hover over human crises.

We have only to go back to last September to see that on the misnamed “Safe Abortion Day”, UNDP, UNFPA and UNICEF, along with WHO and the World Bank, announced a collaboration with some of the world’s leading abortion promoters and providers, including IPPF and Marie Stopes International, to prevent “unsafe abortions” during the Covid pandemic.

These groups make no secret of their support for abortion. The UNFPA website makes their position clear: “Every individual has the right to make their own choices about their sexual and reproductive health. UNFPA, together with a wide range of partners, works toward the goal of universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, including family planning.” (“Reproductive health” is a euphemism for abortion and contraception.)

Far from protecting children, these organisations are key drivers in the global push for the sexual rights of children; a pernicious, evil concept which has done so much damage.[1] UNFPA, UNICEF, UN Women, WHO all appear on the front cover of a 2018 UNESCO publication: “International Technical Guide on Sexuality Education”, which urges “States to decriminalize abortion to ensure that girls have access to safe abortion and post-abortion services, review legislation with a view to guaranteeing the best interests of pregnant adolescents and ensure that their views are always heard and respected in abortion-related decisions”. (Point 60, page 119.)

So it’s not surprising that in recommendations dated 18 May 2020, UNICEF states that “protective measures such as contraception … should be included among the principal points to consider in preparing emergency response measures”. So-called “emergency contraceptives” (which can act as abortifacients) should be included in the supplies, says UNICEF, along with latex condoms and oral and injectable hormone based contraceptives.  UNICEF also calls for “obstetric/gynaecological health care services in the shelters and temporary refuges, with trained staff”. This provision will no doubt serve to deliver babies, but it’s hard not to think that abortions will also be taking place.

So is this what the people of St Vincent can expect, along with all the things they truly need like clean water, food and real medical attention?

I am not decrying the vital humanitarian aid which people in a disaster zone need. But we should be aware that the very structures which allow emergency help to reach people in need, also act as a channel for delivering contraception and abortion.

Indeed, abortion provider Marie Stopes International is making full use of these lines of access according to their 2020 report on the pandemic: “By doubling up with other essential services, such as immunization, food delivery programmes or COVID-related activities, we have found that programmes can continue to deliver SRHR [sexual and reproductive health rights] services, whilst maximising health system resources.”

A 2020 UNICEF UK document describes how childhood vaccination programmes offer “vital infrastructure and support (such as supply chains, cold storage, trained health care staff, data monitoring, disease surveillance, health care records and much more) that serves as the platform through which other basic PHC [primary health care] services can be provided. So, when a community gets access to childhood vaccination, it is often not long before they also receive other health services, such as neonatal and maternal health care, nutrition supplements, malaria prevention measures, as well as sexual and reproductive health and education.”

It is important for pro-lifers to be aware of how abortion and contraception are peddled alongside important life-sustaining services. Charities operating in crisis area which may claim to have no connection with abortion and contraception, may, knowingly or otherwise, be facilitating abortion providers and promoters.

Pro-abortion UN agencies operating in crisis zones come with more than just the necessities for life. Incorporating “reproductive health” with lifesaving relief is a wicked exploitation of vulnerable and displaced people in a desperate situation. How much of the $29 million will be spent on what the people of St Vincent really need?