UNFPA Misstates Vatican’s View of Family Planning
Unable to sway its opponents, the UNFPA has decided to undermine them instead. Natis Sadik, executive director of UNFPA, recently alleged that one of the main opponents of population control, the Vatican, had endorsed a UNFPA plan for slowing world population growth. In a speech which preceded the release of UNFPA’s “State of the Population 1999” report. Sadik claimed that the Vatican had “given up attempts to stop the United Nations providing family planning for women in the poorest countries.” Although she did not go so far as to claim that Pope John Paul II has changed his personal position, she did state that “They [the Vatican] believe that the debate [over family planning] has been lost. Even strongly Catholic countries such Honduras or Malta have family planning and sexual health programs and the Church has let it go.”
Far from “letting it go,” however, the Vatican has been the one of the most active voices at the UN opposing population control programs. At the recent Cairo+5 meetings, representatives of the Holy See worked with a contingent of Christians, Moslems and others to promote a view of development that respects the dignity and rights of all, especially the poor and downtrodden.
Sadik was misstating the Vatican’s position on the rights of parents to regulate their fertility and the spacing of their children. Her claims were quickly corrected by Vatican Spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls. “The Holy See’s satisfaction over the consensus achieved in international documents that affect the regulation of fertility must not be interpreted as a change in its well-known position regarding the family planning services that do not respect the spouses’ liberty, human dignity or the rights of those affected.” Navarro-Valls also reiterated the Vatican’s opposition to abortion.
The people in developing nations look to the Vatican to be a strong voice at the UN opposing coercive population control programs. If they had given up the fight, that would be bad news indeed.
(“UNFPA: “Vatican has accepted UN Family Planning,” Zenit, 23 September 1999; “Statement by Vatican Press Spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, 27 September 1999)
Racist Humor?
The careless attitude towards people which characterizes the thinking of population control proponents came through loud and clear at a recent UNFPA briefing in Brussels. Demographer and former UNFPA representative Jan Fransen joked that increased mortality in Africa is one of three ways to keep the population from growing. That his remark was taken seriously was made clear by a representative from Marie Stopes international who asked what a “‘demographer’s approach to AIDS and STDs is since they reduce life expectancy.” Since AIDS has come to the fore, life expectancy in some African nations has plummeted from 61 to 43. Fransen further showed his lack of concern for people by lamenting that at UN meetings “population has been reduced to reproductive health versus the micro-level of individual rights.”
Maximum Carrying Capacity?
Instead the focus should be on the number of “‘people which the earth can hold in 21 sustainable way,”’ a number he believes to be only between 700 million and 1 billion, The Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute reports that “the focus on human rights disturbs [Fransen] because it draws attention away from this more pressing matter of the carrying capacity of the earth.”
(Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, “UNFPA Briefing makes light of high mortality in Africa,” Friday Fax, 15 October 1999)
Sovereign Rights
In a display of blatant lack of respect for national sovereignty, Marisela Padron Quero, UNFPA director of Latin America and the Caribbean, used deceit to try to influence the writing of the Constitution of Venezuela. A Constituent Assembly was established last year by president Hugo Chavez to draft a new Venezuelan constitution. One of the topics being discussed for inclusion in the constitution is a clause prohibiting abortion. A drafting committee, which the Venezuelan first lady chairs, recommended that human life be declared “inviolable from the moment of conception,” Although the present constitution prohibits abortion, the proposed language would strengthen the wording. This outraged Padron Quero, who informed the Constituent Assembly that this action would violate several UN conventions which Venezuela had already signed. UNFPA has been asked to name the conventions which would allegedly would be violated, but has not responded to this request.
(Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, “UNFPA Accused of Lying to Venezuela, Friday Fax, 4 November 1999)
