Last week in Strasbourg, the political establishment of the European Union was shocked by an unexpected rebellion from an unexpected quarter, one that could proceed to fundamentally alter the West’s promotion of abortion in the developing world.
The cause of this key battle was the relatively innocuous sounding report on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Development Cooperation by the German Green MEP Feleknas Uca.
The Guardian, the leading leftwing British newspaper, reported that the revolt “sought to cut funding for maternal health in developing nations.” In fact, the Conservatives tried to amend the report to prioritise reproductive health towards “issues such as obstetric and traumatic fistula,” and “the presence of skilled birth attendants;” which according to the UNFPA are the most important means for reducing maternal mortality (Millennium Development Goal 5).
The left-wing groups in the Parliament, which together form a majority, voted against these amendments. What they voted for was sexual & reproductive health rights (SRHR), which is interpreted by various NGOs and international bodies as ‘access to abortion.’
Why should one oppose SRHR? Because it is being used as a means of population control in the third world. Furthermore, via SRHR programs, the European taxpayer is funding especially in China and India the practice of gender-selected abortions.
UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon, in his opening address to the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women in New York, said: “Through the practice of prenatal sex selection, countless [women] are denied the right even to exist.”
Furthermore, according to the UNFPA’s State of the World Population Report last year, there is a global deficit of 60 million women in the world - that is the same as the total population of the UK - and that these ‘missing’ females have been pre-natally sex-selected, aborted, and infanticized out of existence.
How is it, that a report of the European Parliament on Gender Equality can be silent on the deliberate murder of unborn persons on the basis of gender? Where is the gender equality in that?
We tabled an amendment to this report demanding a gender analysis on all abortions performed in the world, and for the European Parliament to be regularly informed of the results. To their absolute shame and utter disgrace the European Parliament’s leftist groups all voted against this amendment both in Committee, and again when it was re-tabled for the final plenary votes last week. All MEPs who voted against this amendment knew exactly what they were doing when they voted against it.
This report squandered a valuable opportunity to remove the most significant cause of injustice against women in the world today - their basic right to life - and instead insisted on perpetuating, through championing the so-called ‘rights’(ie abortion) of sexual and reproductive health, the very cause of this injustice.
MEPs disgusted at the practice of gender-selected abortions, and the EU’s funding of them, were urged to vote with the Conservatives on this report. Amazingly, as a bloc, Europe’s leftwing groups, consisting of the finest delegations of professional feminists in the world, voted against this amendment.
Yet again, it can be clearly seen that an authentic understanding of feminism is not in safe hands when it is considered the preserve of those who spend the most time talking about it. Those MEPs, who in US terms would be labelled “conservatives” of some stripe, had the courage and the conviction to seek the removal of this form of discrimination against women, while the political left was too wedded to abortion on demand; and these 60 million women terminated because of their gender merely collateral damage in the pursuit of this greater cause.
Shame on them.
The fact that socialist, liberal, communist and Green MEPs voted against an amendment that would have informed the Parliament (and therefore them themselves) of the precise influence of gender in abortions that the EU itself is funding, is of fundamental importance to the future direction of this debate.
Why would they not only not want to know - but to prevent anyone else from knowing? The answer is because the radical-militant left knows interference to prevent gender-selected abortions is a de facto undermining of a woman's right to choose. These personalities also know that that there are many who voted with them out of a belief that the left represents feminism; whereas the right represents reaction. But this dynamic will now change with the terrible consequences of ‘pro-choice’ lies being exposed.
One could sense in the European Chamber that when Deputies concentrated their speeches on the 60 million women killed because of their gender, many feminists were visibly and deeply disturbed. If we remain united in our principles and loyal to our convictions, then as Frank Pavone of Priests for Life asserts, the day is far closer at hand than many believe when this evil will be opposed by a majority on both sides of the political spectrum. The consequences are simply too visible and too unpalatable to ignore.
We are now putting together a campaign in the European Parliament for the EU to monitor the extent to which it is funding gender-selected abortions in the developing world. After this is in place, we will move on to the UN. We are expecting ferocious opposition. Any readers who agree with us can email their much-needed moral support to ndeva@europarl.eu.int.
