Despite disavowal of radical sex ed guide, UNFPA continues activist training

Berlin, Germany, Sep 5, 2009 / 15:18 pm

While criticism has caused the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to pull its name from a graphic sex ed guide, the organization has just completed a conference in Berlin to train 400 activists to demand countries fund and provide similar programs and abortions.

The Non-Governmental Forum on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Development met from September 2-4. The German government co-sponsored the forum with the UNFPA.

Wendy Wright, president for Concerned Women of America, and Samantha Singson, Director of Government Relations at the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM), were at the conference and reported on it in a C-FAM press release.

Sessions at the conference trained activists to agitate for more money from countries and foundations. They were taught how to pressure governments to provide sex education and abortion and how to train youth to advocate for abortion and “sexual rights,” C-FAM says.

Materials titled “Ensuring Women’s Access to Safe Abortion” and “I Need an Abortion” were distributed to attendees.

A statement to be released at the end of the conference tells countries to provide abortions through public health systems and to guarantee “sexual and reproductive rights as human rights.”

It also calls for the elimination of parental and age restrictions for youth access to “the full range of sexual and reproductive health information and services.”

Further, the conference statement calls for increased funding for non-governmental organizations to expand advocacy.

UNFPA director Thoroya Obaid told the conference: "Unlike us at the U.N. who are held accountable by intergovernmental mechanisms, you as NGOs have more freedom and space to push the agenda ahead."

In related news, CNSNews.com recently broke a story on a sex ed guide titled, “International Guidelines on Sexual Education,” and put out by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in cooperation with the UNFPA. The guide, published in June, advocates teaching 5 to 8 year olds about self-abuse. It calls for children ages 9 to 12 to be taught about abortions, while by age 15 it recommends teaching them about “advocacy to promote the right to and access to safe abortion.”

According to C-FAM, the guidelines are identical to the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) and one of the guide authors is a former SIECUS employee.

Samantha Singson commented on the controversy, saying “In the same week that UNFPA backtracked on putting its name on the sex ed manual, it trained activists to demand ‘comprehensive sexuality education’ and access to abortion for all youth."

Wendy Wright was also critical:

"UNFPA tells people to 'create a need' for reproductive health care. Now we can see that UNFPA creates the need for abortion, HIV/AIDS treatments and other health care by teaching kids as young as five to be sexually active.”