I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that maybe, just maybe, we have lost all sense of what our real rights are:
by
I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that maybe, just maybe, we have lost all sense of what our real rights are:
by
Melissa says
The UN Population Fund is not the UN. It is a committee thereof. Catholics for Choice says that contraception is a human right too, but they, quite obviously, don’t speak for the entire Catholic Church.
That being said, this development is quite troubling. These contraception-pushers are like two year old children: they whine, and whine, and whine, and whine, until their parents, exhausted, give in and let them have what they want. (Not that I would ever give in to a whining two year old. Not me. 🙂
Andrea Mrozek says
Thanks, Melissa.
Just curious, but would you make a distinction between an entity and a committee created by that entity? “The UN Population Fund is not the UN. It is a committee thereof.”
Seems like splitting hairs to me, but perhaps I’m missing something.
Melissa says
I think, Andrea, that you have to be very, very careful who is speaking when you ascribe a point of view, especially when you are dealing with a big tent organization whose members’ opinions run the entire gamut.
When somebody says the UN calls birth control a human right, that implies, to me, that there is a consensus among member states, or at least a majority of them hold that opinion. I’m pretty sure that it is not the case that a majority of UN member states hold that position. It is the opinion of a subset of a subset; unfortunately, that subset holds a huge amount of political swell.
So yeah, I do think there is a substantial difference between the UN and the UNFPA. If the UN were to ratify the notion that birth control is a right, then, and only then, could we say that is a UN opinion. You have to be very careful when speaking on behalf of a larger organization, and the UNFPA really overstepped its bounds here.
But, even though the UNFPA ought to be called to the carpet, we both know that they won’t be. Instead, they’ll keep pushing and pushing for more sterile sex globally.
Andrea Mrozek says
I’m going to do some research. I don’t think there is as big a difference between the UNFPA and the UN as you think there is. But it is wise to be very cautious with language and ascribing views to people who do not hold them so in general I am onside with being more careful. Off to check into what/who the UNFPA is and what their affiliation is. 🙂
Andrea Mrozek says
Take a look at this UNFPA annual report. Seems to me that the UNFPA is the population/development arm of the UN. I’m not sure that member states vote on what they do, but the relationship is more than incidental.
http://www.unfpa.org/webdav/site/global/shared/documents/publications/2011/AR_2010.pdf