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The Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy

The Alan Guttmacher Institute

The United Nations

Debating Abstinence
May 8, 2002

Since when does the United Nations talk about sex?

The controversial topic of "reproductive health services," better known as birth control, was one of many topics debated at the 2002 U.N. General Assembly Special Session for Children.

The summit, the first of its kind in 12 years, brought together 60 world leaders, 170 national delegations, with hundreds of children at the U.N. headquarters in New York from May 8 to 10.

In the final hours of the conference, delegates agreed on language for a document that will shape how the U.N. deals with the issue of health services around the world.

The summit

The goal of the special session was to come up with a final document outlining U.N. policy, which could potentially affect millions of young people around the world.

In some remote areas of the globe, U.N. programs are the main source of health information, with U.N. workers acting as doctors and school counselors combined.

Since there are so many different groups with thoughts on the subject of birth control, it is not surprising that there was disagreement about the wording of the document.

Teaching about prevention

One side of the argument supported education about contraception, and was not morally opposed to abortion. Since many teens are already having sex, they argued, the document should allow for more liberal strategies to help prevent pregnancy. For instance, education about different forms of contraception, such as condoms, should be available.

Many European and African countries, as well as the Rio Group, a coalition representing most of Latin America, supported this strategy. They argued that the final document should use the term "reproductive health services," which would allow U.N. workers to teach contraception methods.

This was in stark contrast to the idea that the U.N. should be telling people not to have sex altogether, also known as "abstinence."

Better to wait

People who support abstinence believe contraception education encourages sexual activity.

The Bush administration fought for the document to promote "abstinence-only" and remove all wording that supports abortion and contraception.

In the past, U.N. documents that mention "reproductive health services" have included abortion as an option. The U.S. State Department instructed ambassadors to push for taking this language out of the document.

While President Bush disagrees with Muslim countries on most subjects, their opinions on this issue were very similar. The Sudan, an African Muslim country, proposed the term "moral sex education," to promote abstinence, something the U.S. delegation supported. President Bush's position also mirrored that of the Catholic Church.

In the end, it was a question of words. Delegates agreed to allow a paragraph on families to include differences on "cultural and traditional" practices.

The United States and Arab nations reached a compromise with more liberal Western nations and Latin American countries on references to "reproductive health services," which some Bush administration delegates said implied abortion.

The new wording simply says "reproductive health."

What do you think?

--Contributed by Mark Bower