Vatican official uncritically ‘welcomes’ UN development goal – despite its pro-abortion language
GENEVA, Switzerland, June 10, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Pope Francis’ representative to the United Nations told the World Health Assembly in Switzerland last month that the Holy See “welcomes” goal 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focused on ensuring “healthy lives,” and the goal’s 13 targets.
However, the representative is coming under fire because one of the 13 targets included in his praise, specifically target 3.7, calls for “universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services.” The UN defined these terms at the 1994 Cairo conference to mean providing women with “modern contraception” for “family planning” and with “safe abortion” where it is legal.
Monsignor Jean-Marie Mupendawatu, secretary to the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Care Workers, told the 69th World Health Assembly held in Geneva on May 25: “The Holy See delegation welcomes the vital emphasis on the dignity of the human person and the strong focus on equity expressed in the pledge that 'no one will be left behind'. This, in terms of health, is expressed in goal 3, to 'Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages', which has 13 targets that are underpinned by universal coverage as the key to the achievement of all the others.”
LifeSiteNews asked Monsignor Mupendawatu if the Holy See now welcomes goal 3 with its target 7 without reservations, but no reply was provided by press time.
The 17 SDGs set an international agenda for the next 15 years to end poverty, promote the well being and prosperity of peoples everywhere, and to protect the environment. But despite the lofty goals, many pro-life leaders have expressed concern that hidden within the SDGs is an anti-life and anti-family agenda.
“Target 3.7 in effect is used by the World Health Organization and UN agencies as synonymous with contraception and abortion, and very little else,” Stefano Gennarini, director of the Center for Legal Studies at the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-FAM), told LifeSiteNews.
Last year pro-life advocates became alarmed when Holy See representative Archbishop Bernardito Auza told the UN that the Vatican supported the goals and targets of the SDGs “verbatim” despite two goals having targets that call for “universal access” to “sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights” as well as “family planning” services. Holy See spokesman Monsignor Joseph Grech told LifeSiteNews at that time that the Holy See had previously raised reservations concerning the targets and that it “cannot and will never support … anything that can undermine the Family or the Right to Life from the moment of conception.”
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