Rebecca Oas
(ZENIT News – Center for Family and Human Rights / Washington, 03.08.2024).- A project of several UN agencies has not only developed contraceptive drugs and devices as well as chemical abortion but also leverages its findings to influence global policy and the laws within UN member nations.
This sordid history is explored in a new book authored by Louis-Marie Bonneau and Grégor Puppinck of the well-respected European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ).
The authors note that the “Human Reproductive Progamme” was founded amid the furor over the “population bomb” scare popularized by Malthusian author Paul Ehrlich, whose 1968 book warned that overpopulation would lead to widespread human suffering, starvation, and death.
The 20th-century population control programs are now widely seen as abusive and ill-conceived, and Ehrlich’s predictions never came true. The HRP changed the narrative to suggest its abortifacient and contraceptive products were ways to fulfill human rights, rather than deny them, as was common in previous population control programs.
This new strategy was evident at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, where the terms “sexual and reproductive health” and “reproductive rights” entered UN policy, rebranding the means of fertility reduction as the right of individuals and families to access, rather than something to be imposed by governments in a top-down manner. Nevertheless, the intended outcome—reducing population growth—remained firmly in place.
The HRP’s most notable recent work is its 2022 abortion guideline, which called on countries to remove all legal restrictions on abortion. Despite the fact that abortion has never been declared a right by global consensus, the abortion guideline notes that the nonbinding opinions of treaty monitoring bodies have called for its decriminalization in all circumstances.
“This assertion clearly demonstrates that the [HRP] uses its scientific authority to twist the arm of States when it comes to interpreting the treaties they have signed,” write Bonneau and Puppinck.
Apart from its claims of scientific authority, the HRP also has the backing of powerful and wealthy countries and foundations. The book’s authors note that the abortion guideline was written after Warren Buffett’s foundation pledged a $100 million grant.
Additional funding for the HRP comes from the Ford and Rockefeller foundations, both of which have longstanding ties to international population control policies, and from the Gates, Hewlett, and MacArthur foundations.
The HRP is also supported by funding from wealthy Western countries including Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia and the United States. Additional funding comes from UN agencies including the WHO and UNFPA, which in turn receive contributions from both national governments and private donors.
Bonneau and Puppinck point out that the WHO, “like all specialized agencies…coordinates its work with the United Nations through negotiated agreements while remaining legally independent.” Because of this, the HRP, operating under the auspices of WHO, demonstrates more accountability to the priorities of its donors than to the text of agreements reached by the General Assembly or other UN bodies that operate on the basis of consensus.
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