Holy See: Link between abortion, women’s development is wrong

A recent Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development stated that “to realise social development women should enjoy autonomy over decisions concerning . . . abortion”.

“This implies that social development is linked to the denial of the right to life to the child in the womb,” said Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer to the United Nations and other international organisations in Geneva, Switzerland.

The prelate added: “It is true that women in many parts of the world face difficult, or even tragic, situations involving suffering, violence, loneliness, a total lack of economic prospects and depression and anxiety about the future. We should be honest and admit that it is by addressing these dramatic human situations that we can reach social development and the good of the world’s women and not by proposing false solutions, such as denying another person’s inviolable right to life, which is always a failure of law, of justice and ultimately of the entire society.”

Archbishop Balestrero called for “a serious commitment to creating equal conditions, including providing [women] with access to education, quality healthcare, decent work, participation in every sphere of life, measures to alleviate poverty and freedom from violence and discrimination”.

The archbishop added that, 30 years after the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action issued after the Fourth World Conference on Women, one truth bears repeating: “Women play a critical role in the family. The family is the basic unit of society and as such should be strengthened.” This requires policies that support both motherhood and family life, as well as the principle of shared responsibility between women and men, he said.

FULL STORY

Vatican diplomat pushes back against UN document linking women’s development, abortion | Catholic Culture (CWN)

Holy See response to UN Special Rapporteur Report (Holy See Permanent Mission to the UN)