Stefano Gennarini
(ZENIT News – Center for Family and Human Rights / New York, 12.20.2025).- The Ambassador of Sweden withdrew a UN resolution on humanitarian assistance Wednesday (December 10) in order to prevent a vote on pro-life amendments proposed by the Trump administration, a vote pro-abortion Europeans seemed slated to lose.
The strategic withdrawal at the eleventh hour shows just how much Europeans fear Trump’s pro-life policies. Just before she pulled the resolution from consideration, the Swedish ambassador said voting on these amendments would be “unfair” to the mostly European delegations that had negotiated the resolution behind closed doors.
This calculous suggests that ending UN promotion of abortion and LGBT rights is a popular cause and that the Trump administration has a clear path to a historic pro-life victory in the General Assembly.
The amendments presented by the U.S. government expressly ruled out abortion as a right and required the UN system to provide the best possible maternal health in humanitarian emergencies to “eliminate the need for abortion.” They hearkened back to past agreements that defined parameters for UN cooperation on “sexual and reproductive health” issues in ways that exclude gender ideology, sexual rights for minors, or LGBT issues.
The Swedish Ambassador said she was worried that if the U.S. amendments passed, it would result in a vote on the resolution as a whole. “We are convinced that a resolution with the tabled amendments is not supported by all and that a better outcome can be achieved,” she said.
She also urged UN humanitarian operations to continue undisturbed by U.S. concerns. “Sweden will protect the existing guidance of last year’s resolution that was adopted by consensus and will continue to guide humanitarian organizations.”
The European Union and several Western nations aggressively promote abortion in UN programming, but they rarely do it openly in the General Assembly. The U.S. amendment forced the issue into the open. When Europeans saw that they could not hide behind shell games on terms like “sexual and reproductive health” and “gender-based violence,” they pulled the plug on the entire debate.
U.S. Ambassador for Political Affairs, Jennifer Locetta, expressed disappointment that the General Assembly did not act on the amendments. She said the amendments were necessary to “protect” UN humanitarian operations from “ideological agendas.” She explained that terms like “sexual and reproductive health” have acquired controversial new meanings in the work of the UN system, including abortion rights, LGBT issues, gender ideology and sexual rights. These, she explained, could not be considered “humanitarian needs” as the resolution suggested.
Locetta accused the Swedish delegation of ignoring U.S. positions. “Had we not barreled past the red line concerns of numerous delegations, this would not have been necessary,” she said.
Ignoring U.S. positions and stalling the UN debate is likely part of a broader strategy of Europeans waiting out the Trump administration. According to some observers, the European bureaucracy is betting on Republicans losing the mid-term elections and Congress re-aligning the U.S. government with the European bureaucracy and the United Nations once again.
Locetta criticized the resolution as a “globalist wish list of divisive cultural causes, including the green new scam, gender ideology, radical abortion viewpoints.” She also warned that the U.S. would not back down from its positions in the future. “If the text comes to the floor, if it contains these absurd propositions again, the United States will continue to stand against it.”
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