UN\u2019s Global Humanitarian Response Plan<\/a>\u00a0for the COVID-19 pandemic, published by Guterres last month, and the appeal he has made for nearly $7 billion to fund it.<\/p>\n\u201cThe UN should not use this crisis as an opportunity to advance access to abortion as an essential service,\u201d warned Barsa, rebuking Guterres for promoting \u201cthe widespread distribution of abortion-inducing drugs and abortion supplies, and for the promotion of abortion in local country settings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barsa said the UN should focus on \u201clife-saving interventions\u201d and the \u201cmost urgent, concrete needs\u201d instead. He cited providing \u201cessential healthcare\u201d and addressing \u201cfood shortages\u201d as examples.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo achieve global unity toward this goal, it is essential that the UN\u2019s response to the pandemic avoid creating controversy,\u201d Barsa insisted, explaining that the term \u201csexual and reproductive health\u201d is controversial and ambiguous. UN agencies should be guided by \u201cclear language and take clear action to address the real needs of vulnerable people around the world without promoting abortion\u201d Barsa wrote.<\/p>\n
The USAID chief highlighted the $650.7 million in foreign aid the Trump administration has released to fight the pandemic, of which $45.3 million went to UN agencies. This is in addition to the $3.5 billion the U.S. contributed as a matter of course to UN agencies in 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe UN should not intimidate or coerce Member States that are committed to the right to life,\u201d Barsa wrote. \u201cTo use the COVID-19 pandemic as a justification to pressure governments to change their laws is an affront to the autonomy of each society to determine its own national policies on health care.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter comes at a key moment in UN negotiations over resolutions bearing on the COVID-19 pandemic. The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations is negotiating an annual resolution on humanitarian work of the UN system adding focused interventions on the pandemic.<\/p>\n
The UN Secretary General is asking UN member states to endorse his plan and fund it in the humanitarian resolution.<\/p>\n
The General Assembly is also negotiating two resolutions about the effect of the pandemic on women, which insert abortion-related policies into the UN\u2019s response to the pandemic, including UN programming related to \u201cgender-based violence\u201d that includes abortion.<\/p>\n
The purpose of the letter, sources told the Friday Fax, was to be public and widely distributed among member States. It is not clear if the letter will be circulated as a document of the General Assembly by the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Craft.<\/p>\n
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