By Jim Brown and Pat Centner
June 3, 2002

(AgapePress) - Radical feminist groups are pressuring the Bush Administration to support an anti-family United Nations agreement. The Washington Times reports that feminist groups are stepping up their lobbying efforts as the Senate prepares for hearings on the pact.

Called the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the pact requires countries to change their constitutions and laws to give women total equality with men in all matters involving marriage, family income, property rights, employment, abortion, and many other matters.

Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America calls the treaty "anti-motherhood and pro-prostitution," and says it attacks the traditional role of mothers in the home. She pointed to 1999 reports of the U.N. committee implementing CEDAW, which said that laws of Belarus and Ireland should be changed because -- in the committee's view -- they "reflect a stereotypical view of the role of women in the home and as mothers."

Belarus was criticized in the U.N. report for the "prevalence of sex-role stereotypes, as also exemplified by such symbols as Mother's Day and a Mothers' Award, which it sees as encouraging women's traditional roles."

The treaty also requires signatory countries to ensure that all women and girls "have access to adequate health care facilities ... including services in family planning." CEDAW interprets the requirement for family planning services to include contraceptives and abortion.

The Washington Times says the U.N. Committee implementing CEDAW has also criticized Ireland because it forbids abortion, but in its 1999 CEDAW compliance report, the U.N. panel urged Ireland's government "to facilitate a national dialogue on women's reproductive rights, including on the restrictive abortion laws."

At a Senate hearing on June 13, the State Department will testify on the administration's position on CEDAW.

© 2002 AgapePress all rights reserved.

E-mail this page to a friend

Printer-Friendly Version

Read all of our current headlines