Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar railed against abortion rights on Monday during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly.
Azar presented a joint statement on behalf of the U.S. and 18 other nations, which expressed opposition to terms such as “sexual and reproductive health and rights” being used in U.N. documents because “they can undermine the critical role of the family and promote practices, like abortion, in circumstances that do not enjoy international consensus and which can be misinterpreted by U.N. agencies.”
Arguing that there is “no international right to an abortion,” the HHS secretary said that the aforementioned terms “should not be used to promote pro-abortion policies and measures.”
Azar also stated that the 19 countries, including the U.S., only support sex education that “appreciates the protective role of the family” and “does not condone harmful sexual risks for young people.”
“We therefore request that the U.N., including U.N. agencies, focus on concrete efforts that enjoy broad consensus among member states,” Azar said. “To that end, only documents that have been adopted by all member states should be cited in U.N. resolutions.”
Bahrain, Belarus, Brazil, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Guatemala, Haiti, Hungary, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen co-signed the statement.
