Caroline Orth for The New York Times

Holy See and Afghanistan’s myopic views of women’s rights

by Caroline Orth for The New York Times

By the midway point of Friday evening’s session, the delegate representing the Holy See stood to debate against Working Paper 1.1 in the Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Committee. “Abortion is a moral sin, and the Holy See cannot support this resolution on the basis that allowing access to contraceptives for women is contrary to Catholic belief.”

This is the funny thing about the Holy See’s statement: if the Vatican City so firmly believes that an abortion procedure is the murder of an individual, you would think that they and their conservative counterparts— much of Latin America, Middle Eastern states governed by Islamic law, and at times even the United Sates – would want to do anything to reduce the number of abortion procedures performed every year. However, the Holy See refuses the distribution of birth control, citing their Catholic belief.

It’s not complicated to understand that contraceptives are the most efficient way to reduce abortions. A variety of options exist, including but not limited to pills, vaginal rings, diaphragms, and both male and female condoms. The most imperative clauses of Working Paper 1.1 were written to ensure that more women receive these contraceptives, resulting in a reduced number of abortion procedures, and yet the Holy See refuses to allow it.

They, unfortunately, are not alone in their nonsensical viewpoints. Panama also raised concerns about providing women the access to contraceptives, and Afghanistan expressed worry that a resolution allowing women the right to reproductive health services “might infuse in them the idea that they have equality with men.” Apparently, the Afghan government would rather see 300,000 women die every year due to reproductive health complications than empower and protect them from diseases contracted from unprotected sex.

Working Paper 1.2, introduced later in the session, was even more outspoken in the empowerment of women, with their first operative clause stating that “there can be no development within a nation without a focus on women,” and that “women cannot help with their nation’s development unless their rights and needs are respected.”

Though SOCHUM’s agenda does not specifically list the empowerment of women as a topic, participating nations would be wise to understand that a woman’s right to protect herself and her child from reproductive diseases is intimately related to their rights as equal members of not just their own community, but the international community as well.

Assigned word count: 350

Actual word count: 392