In March 2003, the International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF/WHR) held a workshop in Antigua, Guatemala, called "¡Basta! América Latina Dice No a la Violencia Basada en Género" ("Enough! Latin America Says No to Gender-Based Violence!") IPPF is the world's largest pro-abortion federation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Among the participating organizations in this workshop were IPPF/WHR member associations from Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Bolivia and Mexico. Other participanting organizations were International Projects Assistance (IPAS, which exports suction abortion equipment from the U.S.); and Comité de América Latina y el Caribe para la Defensa de los Derechos de la Mujer (CLADEM, Spanish acronym for "Latin American Committee for the Defense of Women's Rights"). CLADEM, perhaps the largest Latin American feminist pro-abortion organization, is based in Argentina, has another regional office in Peru and national offices in 14 other Hispanic countries.1
During the workshop, participants issued the "Declaración de Antigua" statement, to "prevent and give an adequate answer to women who are victims or survivors of gender-based violence."2 In it, they asked United Nations (UN) to "hold an international conference on gender-based violence in 2008." This petition was presented publicly May 28, 2003, "Women's Health International Action Day."3
What do IPPF and its pro-abortion feminist allies really expect to accomplish by means of this campaign? In order to answer that question, let us first see how they define "gender-based violence".
IPPF claims that the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) defines gender-based violence as "the violence that involves men and women, in which women are usually the victims and that stems from power inequality between men and women."4 IPPF also claims that "to violate a woman's reproductive and sexual rights [= surgical abortion and contraceptives, including those which are abortifacient], constitutes violence against her, which according to IPPF is a fact acknowledged in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1994."5
In my article "Domestic Violence: A New Strategy to Promote the 'Culture' of Death"6, I quoted the definition of gender-based violence by pro-abortion feminists. They claim that "forced motherhood" and "the denial of reproductive and sexual health services to adolescents", are "acts of violence and discrimination against women and girls". They also claim that said "acts of violence" violate "reproductive and sexual rights", and that these are "human rights" of women.7 They furthermore claim that "reproductive and sexual rights are protected by international law as human rights and by other UN documents". Finally, they also claim that, among these rights, are the right to "freedom of expression and to the exercise of sexual orientation", as well as the right "to receive protection vis-a-vis the threat or the violation of fundamental, sexual and reproductive rights."8
Presently, CLADEM is promoting the approval of an "Inter-American Convention on Reproductive and Sexual Rights". The goal of this Convention is to guarantee these "rights without any type of restriction or discrimination."9
Several powerful anti-life organizations from the U.S. have joined pro-abortion feminists in the implementation of this strategy. IPPF and its member associations in Latin America, the International Women's Health Coalition; Catholics for a Free Choice, Family Care International, the Center for Reproductive Health, among others, have established the International Coalition on Sexual and Reproductive Rights.10
On 3-4 December 2001, anti-life feminists from several countries met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There they issued the "Guanabara Charter", in which they stated that "the right to abortion is a human right, to penalize it constitutes discrimination and violence against women."11 In it, they also affirmed their commitment to obtain these "rights" for the "different sexual orientations" (= homosexual and lesbian activity), so that people with these "orientations" "can control their own bodies and decide what to do with them, with the support of a lay State." The Charter concludes with a call "to join the struggle for the decriminalization of abortion and for the free exercise of sexual and reproductive rights." This is exactly the same argument the famous Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa used, when he declared himself in favor of the decriminalization of abortion in his country, "because [to penalize it] constitutes a clear sign of violence and discrimination against women."12
Since at least 1994, CLADEM has been promoting a revision of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights "from a gender perspective."13 In 1981, the "First Latin America and the Caribbean Feminist Encounter" met in Bogotá, the capital of Colombia. There, more than 140 pro-abortion feminist organizations from 11 different countries resolved "that every 25 th of November be dedicated to women victims of violence done against them, just because they are women."14 On 3 November 1999, they were able to get the UN to establish November 25 as the "International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women."15
It is obvious that the organizations that constitute the "culture" of death have been planning this present strategy for years. They began by introducing in UN conferences the terms "reproductive health", "sexual and reproductive rights", "forced pregnancy" and "gender violence". They now use all of them deceptively, to convince governments to vote in favor of their anti-life goals.
Pro-abortion feminists and their anti-life allies of the "culture" of death promote harmful contraceptives and the violence of abortion; while claiming that they are promoting women's "health" and "protecting" women from violence.
What is really necessary to promote in order to benefit women, are the natural family planning (NFP) methods, as well as programs that aid battered women. Vida Humana Internacional has in its Spanish website, a wealth of information on NFP and on how to help women who are victims of domestic violence. We urge all people of good will to begin these types of efforts, for they are the ones that really benefit women.
Notes: 1."¿Dónde estamos?, Cladems Nacionales, CLADEM website, www.cladem.org/dond.htm, 2-21-02. 2. "Declaración de Antigua", IPPF website, http://www.ippfwhr.org/global/news/infocus/gbvdeclaration/antigua_s.asp , 5/14/03. 3. "¡Un llamado a erradicar la violencia basada en género en las Américas!", IPPF/RHO Newsletter, IPPF website, www.ippfwhr.org/updates/update20030513_s.html , 5-14-2003. 4. IPPF Medical Bulletin, April 2, 2000. 5. "Human Rights and Violence Against Women in the Beijing Platform for Action - An IPPF Analysis", "Violence Against Women and Women's Human Rights, IPPF Discussion Paper Issue Two". 6. Electronic newsletter of the Red de Salud de las Mujeres Latinoamericanas y del Caribe, January 12, 2000. 7. "Documentos - definiciones - derechos sexuales y reproductivos", CLADEM website, www.convencion.org/uy/menu2-021.htm, l-14-02. 8. "Temas", Red de Salud de las Mujeres Latinoamericanas y del Caribe website, www.reddesalud.web.cl, 2-20-02. 9. "Documentos - Declaración de la Coalición Internacional sobre Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos ante la Tercera Sesión Sustantiva del Comité Preparatorio para la Sesión Especial de la Asamblea General sobre la Niñez", United Nations, New York, June 11- 15, 2001, taken from CLADEM's website, 2-20-2001. 10. "Eventos, "Carta de Guanabara", prepared during the meeting "Aborto en América Latina y el Caribe - derechos de las mujeres frente a la coyuntura mundial" (on abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean and women's rights), promoted by the "Campaña 28 de septiembre - Día por la Descriminalización del aborto" (campaign to legalize abortions), www.convencion.org/uy/menu5-038.htm, CLADEM's wesite, January 14, 2002. 11. "Perú-Aborto - Vargas Llosa y Regas a favor de despenalización del aborto en Perú", EFE news agency, Lima, 1 December, 2002, UNICEF's website , http://uniceflac.org/espanol/noticias_efe/diciembre2002/Noti021202.htm. 12. "Women's Health Journal", 4/94, Isis Internacional. 13. "25 de noviembre: Fecha de Naciones Unidas, Mujer/Fempress Magazine No. 217- December, 1999. 14. "25 de noviembre, Día Internacional de la No Violencia contra las Mujeres", Estrategias, Red de Salud de las Mujeres Latinoamericanas y del Caribe's website, www.reddesalud.web.cl/25%20de%20html , November 7-20-00.