Abortion Remains an Issue for UN Child Summit

Summary: Abortion looks set to become an
issue at next month's "Children's
Summit", with the United States
reportedly planning to exclude
support for abortion counselling and
services from the final declaration of
the United Nations conference.

The United Nations will hold its Child Summit May 8-10 in New
York, but already the Bush Administration is plotting to change
language in the Summit declaration that would exclude support
for abortion counseling and services. The Bush Administration had
already made clear its view that the phrase “reproductive health
services” in the document was an endorsement of abortion last
August before the Summit was postponed until May because of
the September 11 attacks. In adopting its position, the Bush
Administration has effectively allied itself with conservative Muslim
nations and the Vatican in an attempt to remove abortion-related
language from the final document.

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