During his speech at the United Nations General Assembly this week, President Donald Trump stated, “Like many nations here today, we in America believe that every child — born and unborn — is a sacred gift from God.”
President Trump, the first U.S. president to address the subject of abortion to the U.N. General Assembly, spoke of his administration’s desire to disentangle the U.S. from promoting abortion overseas.
During his speech Trump stated, “Americans will also never tire of defending innocent life. We are aware that many United Nations projects have attempted to assert a global right to taxpayer-funded abortion on demand, right up until the moment of delivery. Global bureaucrats have absolutely no business attacking the sovereignty of nations that wish to protect innocent life.”
Last Monday, the United States presented a joint statement declaring that there is no “international right” to abortion and calling on the governing body to stop using euphemistic terms to describe abortion in its official documents. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar delivered a statement at a U.N. meeting on universal health coverage on behalf of the U.S. and 18 other member countries, which represent 1.3 billion people total.
Azar said, “We do not support references to ambiguous terms and expressions, such as sexual and reproductive health and rights in U.N. documents, because they can undermine the critical role of the family and promote practices, like abortion. There is no international right to an abortion and these terms should not be used to promote pro-abortion policies and measures.”
He also argued that the use of vague terms ignores both the role of the family in health and “the sovereign right of nations to implement health policies,” and that this ambiguous language allows for misinterpretation when policies are implemented.
One of President Trump’s first actions after taking office in January 2017 was to sign an executive order to restore the Mexico City Policy, which prevents foreign-aid groups that provide or promote abortion in other countries from receiving $9 billion in U.S. funds.
President Trump has also:
- Spoken live via satellite at the March for Life in D.C, a first for any sitting U.S. president.
- Cut off taxpayer funding for the U.N. Population Fund.
- Signed H.J. Res. 43 into law which overturned an Obama regulation that prohibited states from defunding Planned Parenthood.
- Issued guidance to stop taxpayer funding of abortion in ObamaCare exchange plans.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “President Trump has proven to be the most pro-life president in U.S. history, and he is the first president to finally address the heinous issue of abortion to world leaders. It’s time for the United Nations to stop promoting human genocide around the world through ambiguous terms that undermine the value of human life,” said Staver.
