The World Congress of Families urges the government of Kenya not to abandon the unborn by adopting language that would facilitate abortion, in a draft of a new constitution.
WCF Communications Director Don Feder noted that the draft constitution, currently being debated in the Kenyan legislature, has contradictory provisions: "On the one hand, Section 26 states that every person has a right to life, and that life begins at conception. However, this is totally negated by the next section, which allows abortion when, in the 'opinion of a trained health professional (not necessarily a physician), there is need for emergency treatment, or the life or health of the mother is in danger, or if permitted by any other written law.'"
Groups like the Center for Reproductive Rights are urging Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to push this abortion loophole on Kenya -- not that she needs much urging.
Feder countered: "An exception to a ban on abortion for the 'health of the mother' is virtually abortion-on- demand. You can always find an obliging 'health professional' -- including mental-health workers -- who will certify that any condition would endanger a woman's health unless a pregnancy is terminated. That's the way mother's-health exceptions work in the United States, and why pro-lifers have fought them so hard."
The World Congress of Families Communications Director noted that abortion does more to jeopardize a mother's health (including making her more susceptible to breast cancer) than does carrying a child to term.
In its publication, "Does legalizing abortion protect women's health," the National Right to Life Committee (a World Congress of Families Partner) notes: "The lack of modern medicine and quality health care, not the prohibition on abortion, results in high maternal mortality rates. Legalized abortion actually leads to more abortions -- and in the developing world, where maternal health care is poor, legalization would increase the number of women who die or are harmed by abortion."
Feder addressed the June 2009 World Congress of Families Dialogue of Civilizations in Abuja, Nigeria, co- sponsored by the Foundation for African Cultural Heritage (FACH). He also spoke at the conference "Media And The Common Good" at Strathmore University in Nairobi, in November 2006.
"Wherever I've traveled in Africa, local leaders have told me they resented the attempts of Western elites to subvert the family values which are the foundation of traditional African culture," Feder disclosed.
On a recent speaking tour of the United States, Theresa Okafor (organizer of the Abuja conference and an FACH director) said Africans emphatically reject the "conspiracy to strip Africa of its cherished values by international organizations like Planned Parenthood and the United Nations."
Feder asserted: "Africa's wealth lies with its strong families as much as in its natural resources. Legalized abortion -- under whatever guise -- will weaken the African family as it has families in the West." The Amsterdam Declaration, adopted by World Congress of Families V in 2009, declares, "We call on them (governments) to protect every human being from conception to natural death."
For more information on the World Congress of Families, please visit
worldcongress.org. To schedule an interview with a WCF spokesman, contact Larry at 815-964-5819 or
larry@profam.org.
The World Congress of Families (WCF) is an international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, leaders and people of goodwill from more than 60 countries that seek to restore the natural family as the fundamental social unit and the 'seedbed' of civil society (as found in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948). The WCF was founded in 1997 by Allan Carlson and is a project of The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society in Rockford, Illinois (
profam.org). To date, there have been five World Congresses of Families - Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004) and Warsaw, Poland (2007). The fifth World Congress of Families was held in Amsterdam, Netherlands, August 10-12, 2009 (
worldcongress.nl and w
worldcongress.org).
