Cairo Beyond Abortion

The real story at the U.N. conference on population and development in Cairo this fall was the unprecedented emphasis on the empowerment of women. The international media, however, was drawn instead to criticisms of the conference generated by the Vatican and a few conservative Muslim and Roman Catholic countries.

As a result, many received the impression that the "program of action" that will serve as the guide for population policy for the next 20 years centered around abortion and other controversial matters. In reality, this was not the case at all.

At the heart of the new approach outlined in the program of action is a shift away from a quantitative emphasis on numbers of people and types of contraceptive technologies to a qualitative emphasis on the empowerment of women and improvement of the quality of life for all people. While the plan reaffirms the goal of universal access to family planning services, it places this task within the broader goals of gender equality and the elimination of all discrimination against women and girls.

Prior to arriving in Cairo, the nations of the world had already reached agreement on 90 percent of the draft program of action, which contained the bulk of the material pertaining to the empowerment of women. There was little public comment about these sections, however, because the conference delegates agreed at the outset not to revisit portions of the text upon which they had already arrived at consensus.

In any case, the bulk of the conference did revolve around controversial subjects and phrases that had been "bracketed" by the Holy See and several Roman Catholic nations. The bracketed terms included all references to "unsafe abortion," "reproductive rights," "reproductive and sexual health," "safe motherhood," and "fertility regulation." The Vatican delegates opposed a sentence that stated "where abortion is legal it should be safe" on the grounds that no abortion can be safe because it involves the death of the fetus.

Representatives of the Vatican expressed their grave concern that these and other phrases implied or assumed a right to abortion on demand and insisted that this assumption was repudiated. Many delegations became frustrated with the Vatican’s position and viewed it as obstructionist. They pointed to a sentence in the program of action which stated that "governments should take appropriate steps to help women avoid abortion, which in no case should be promoted as a method of family planning."

More positively, al-though the Vatican’s actions triggered several harsh responses, they also generated substantial reflection and discussion on the views of other world religions regarding issues posed by the draft program of action.

THE PREOCCUPATION of the media with the abortion controversy also overshadowed other significant achievements and concerns expressed at the conference. Lost from public view was the important example this conference sets for future U.N. meetings, including the central role played by representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as the important return of the United States to a role of international leadership in the field of population.

While the women’s caucus at the NGO forum quickly emerged as a powerful political force and voice during the conference, several women from countries in Africa and Latin America expressed frustration that the conference focused too much on family planning and not enough on key development issues such as poverty, unemployment, and the lack of potable water. It is clear that greater effort needs to be expended to include the perspectives of these women and nations.

Another issue that merited greater public attention is the issue of funding for the program of action. The plan calls for a rapid increase in global expenditures for family planning services. There are legitimate reasons to doubt that Western donor nations, including the United States, will increase their level of giving sevenfold as the plan requires.

Finally, the issue of overconsumption in wealthy, developed nations did not receive the rigorous treatment it deserves within the program of action or at the conference itself.

Nevertheless, despite these concerns and drawbacks, there was a broad consensus among the delegations that the conference was a significant success insofar as it marks a radically new approach to population policy with its efforts to empower women and improve the quality of life for all.

JIM MARTIN-SCHRAMM, an observer at the Cairo conference, is a professor of religion and philosophy at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.