Best of CSW68
Photo of Daniela García (IYc Director), Iulia Cazan (IYc Associate Director), and Blanka Bąkiewicz (IYc Volunteer)
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) held its 68th session at the United Nations Headquarters and the IYc team was there every day throughout the two weeks of programming! We attended tens of events, raised questions during Q&A sessions, and interacted with panelists and civil society representatives to share the pro-life and pro-family message.
The Commission is guided by a progressive worldview and an agenda that promotes abortion access as a key determinant for women’s well-being. We were there to challenge this narrative through respectful dialogue and by presenting an alternative perspective through personal testimonies. The UN should not operate as an echo chamber where everything promoted by pro-abortion advocates is taken at face value, while pro-life voices are silenced or ridiculed.
C-Fam, Campaign Life Coalition, Hillsdale College, and United Families International brought volunteers to this year’s CSW to promote the idea that all human life is valuable and worth fighting for. Our responsibility is to protect and nurture life, not eliminate it when it becomes inconvenient.
“The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, I have come so that they may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10).”
CSW and Maternal Health
CSW culminates with the adoption of a resolution on gender equality. This year’s focus theme is “accelerating the achievement of gender equality… by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective.” As consequential as the topic is, progressive member states found a way to sidetrack it into a fight over controversial terminologies that promote abortion while millions of women around the world lack access to basic life-sustaining necessities, such as access to clean and safe water, healthcare, and food.
During a multi-stakeholder partnership meeting, a UNFPA representative said “we know how to prevent maternal mortality: through sexual and reproductive health services, improve sexual and reproductive health education, and empower women to decide when to have children.” More often than not, by “sexual reproductive health” they mean access to abortion services.
Nonetheless, that is not what many women from the Global South say is most important. A brave woman from Chad took the floor to ask what the UN is doing to help ensure women have access to real health- not to kill their babies but to deliver babies safely. You can find an excerpt of her statement below:
“Maternal health is a very important thing, especially where I come from…in Chad women do not have access to maternal health. Due to these reasons they have to travel to other countries to deliver safely. However, this is not the solution because not many women can afford that…I heard a lot of people talking about access to maternal health, what about ensuring that the maternal health we have is effective and of quality?”
IYc Event
Together with Campaign Life Coalition and the Permanent Mission of Senegal to the UN, we hosted a parallel event right across from the UN, Supporting Women During Unplanned Pregnancies. We heard from five pro-life heroes, including Abby Johnson and Emily Berning, founders of two amazing non-profits helping women with financial support, counseling, financial planning, and many other services that make mothers feel supported and empowered to choose life. Their organizations saved thousands of babies from abortion. We also heard about the importance of mental health services from Millie Lace and the role of young people in the pro-life movement from Allison Lind. LifeSiteNews wrote about our event so make sure you check out their article!
The truth is every single one of us has to do our part. Being pro-life does not stop with passing legislation that protects life in the womb but with the personal effort to be there next to the soon-to-be mothers who do not have a support system to rely on during their pregnancies.
Other Events
To commemorate World Down Syndrome Day, the Holy See Mission to the UN and C-Fam held an event on the importance of eliminating negative stereotypes about people with Down Syndrome and supporting their inclusion and acceptance in society. As the Archbishop commented during the event, it is not only about what we can offer people with Down Syndrome but also about recognizing the great gift they bring into all of our lives. You can watch the full event here or read about it via C-Fam’s Friday Fax.
Earlier this week, the Permanent Mission of the Holy See to the UN held an event on surrogacy featuring a fascinating discussion on its moral implications and real cost- both for surrogate mothers and for the child and its moral implications. I highly recommend you watch it here.
Notable Moments
At a CSW Side event, Catalysts for change: breaking down gender stereotypes in media and advertising, Liana Gordan, a Campaign Life Coalition volunteer, challenged the ambiguous definition of masculinity promoted by panelists and their negative depiction of traditional gender roles:
“You’ve spoken regarding the views of masculinity espoused by the…[Jordan] Petersons of the world but from what I understand, however, and also as a Canadian, Jordan Peterson seems to uplift a view of masculinity that is oriented around duty- duty to society, duty to one’s family, a duty to protect the vulnerable, which emanates from the clear and distinct differences between men and women in terms of their physical and even reproductive capacities. So could you elaborate on what you think is problematic about that and how a competing vision of masculinity such as the kind that you are advocating for challenges that since, as you said, [according to your view] there is no clear and unified vision of what that looks like? Furthermore, if masculinity has no fixed and single definition, on what grounds can one contest the “Petersons’ of the world” espousal of traditional masculinity?”
- Liana Gordan
