This archive report was first published on 15 November 2019.
Published on November 15, 2019, a controversy-ridden International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD25) forum in Nairobi saw the United States and the European Union openly clash over what the former claimed was a hidden pro-choice agenda.
The US delegation argued that pro-life and pro-family groups had been barred from attending the event, and that the forum had a hidden pro-abortion agenda due to its lack of transparency.
They stated that "any outcomes from this summit are not intergovernmentally negotiated, nor will they have been the result of a consensus," and urged states not to honour the more than 1,250 global commitments that have already been made.
The EU, on the other hand, said they wanted universal support for informed reproductive health choices for women, with a joint ad hoc delegation of 10 members of the EU Parliament committing €1 billion towards sexual and reproductive health and rights.
EU Parliament member Evelyn Regner said, "We don't only support them fully but we're going further to commit €1 billion towards sexual and reproductive health and rights which are absolutely important because seven women per day are dying in Kenya because of unsafe abortions and other conditions," adding, "These are fundamental rights and we believe money should be dedicate to comprehensive sexual education and service provision, measures that could prevent these women from dying."
However, the US team claimed that sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) was coded language for abortion, with Huber Valerie, the head of the US delegation, saying, "The term SRHR has been used to aggressively promote practices like abortion. There is no international right to abortion."
