Time to make right choices on abortion, homosexuality

Some of the delegates at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), Nairobi summit at KICC. [David Gichuru, Standard]

When the Church and other pro-family groups first raised alarm over the possible abortion and homosexuality agenda at the International Conference on Population Development (ICPD 25), we were vilified for crying wolf. The organisers and their sympathisers were categorical that the conference had no such issues on its agenda. In fact, one Twitter user responded to my tweet, “Unless @doginde included this agenda or commitment in the summit's programme himself, no plans have been made for this, the @citamke Bishop should stop lying to the President and people.” Well, the jury is out there for anyone willing to return an objective verdict. All indications are that the real agenda of the ICPD25 was always twofold – Abortion and LGBTQI rights, period. If you dissect the Sexuality and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) – which was the central agenda – it breaks neatly into two sets of rights: Sexuality rights (read homosexuality rights) and reproductive health rights (read abortion rights). Indeed, this was the bone of contention between the big-league nations.

The US was categorical that the 1994 Cairo agenda had been hijacked. “The term SRHR has been used to aggressively promote practices like abortion. There is no international right to abortion,” said Huber Valerie, the head of the US delegation. It is therefore clear that a global showdown over the ICPD25 summit outcomes is brewing.