Compass Gender: U.S. Co-Sponsors International Declaration Against Abortion

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo co-hosts the signing of an anti-abortion declaration (Wikimedia Commons).

The United States joined several other countries in sponsoring the Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family, which challenges women’s right to an abortion. The declaration was signed on October 22 by 33 United Nations member-states, many of which are regarded as authoritarian regimes. 

The declaration aims to promote women’s health, strengthen the family, preserve human life, and proclaims that each country should make its own laws about abortion regardless of external pressure from the international community.

Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, and Uganda also co-sponsored the declaration at a virtual event held by the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO).

None of the co-sponsors besides the United States rank higher than 95th on Georgetown University’s 2019 Women, Peace and Security Index, which ranks 167 countries on women’s equality. The United States, which ranks 19th, was the only country in the top 20 to sign the declaration. Several other signatories—including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and the Democratic Republic of Congo—are classified as authoritarian regimes in the Economist’s 2019 Democracy Index. 

While the declaration suggests that each country should make its own laws, it asserts that “in no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning.” 

As a co-sponsor, the Trump administration continues its effort to reorient foreign policy to align more with an evangelical Christian standard. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spearheaded this campaign and even co-hosted the signing of the declaration alongside Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar. 

At the virtual signing, Pompeo said, “Under President Trump’s leadership, the United States has defended the dignity of human life everywhere and always. He’s done it like no other president in history.”

At the signing, Azar discussed the importance of the declaration, saying, “The Declaration is much more than a statement of beliefs—it is a critical and useful tool to defend these principles across all United Nations bodies and at every multilateral setting.”