UN Declaration on Population and Development (1994)
In 1994, Mexico signed the UN Declaration on Population and Development that bound the country to comply with international standards on reproductive rights. These standards articulate that a woman has the right to decide on issues related to abortion, without state interference and needs access to related pertinent health care services in the name of gender equality.” These international guidelines recommend policies and programs as well as require compliance from the member countries.
The recommendations directly connect population issues to development by recognizing the interrelated nature of reproduction to economic growth, health care, and the overall well-being of the nation. In doing so, it effectively frames population issues as crucial to the progress of a nation, and that they cannot be dissociated from the greater economic, health, and educational well-being of the nation, and thus, is in a country’s best interest to uphold the declaration. The declaration frames abortion as a health concern for women, and resolves that universal access to family planning information and services is the solution.
While it is significant that countries highlighted that women are “agents of change” and thus crucial to the development of a nation, the document articulates broad goals without alluding to the process in which to achieve them. Without detailed guidelines, these statements are too generalized to hold countries accountable for not upholding the declaration on population and development.
Although the 1994 UN Declaration on Population and Development played a significant role in shaping Mexico’s abortion policies, it occurred at a time when the “Global Gag Rule” was revoked by U.S. President Bill Clinton. The Global Gag Rule prevents family planning organizations from using U.S. funds to distribute information about the need for safe and legal abortions, or to provide abortions, for that matter. These restrictions not only limit access to abortion, but also the ability for women to make informed decisions about their health (1).
Information—demanded by the declaration on population and development and restricted by the Global Gag Rule—lays at the crux of the abortion issue. U.S. anti-abortion groups distribute propaganda such as graphic abortion videos and pamphlets that are used by Mexican anti-abortion groups (2). These multimedia sources can be used to manipulate women into making a decision about their abortion and the consequences as well as influence policies, such as changes in certain state’s penal codes that recognize the beginning of life at the moment of conception.
Information, aimed at either the Mexican Government or Mexican women, can effectively shape policy and personal decisions. By framing abortion as central to the political, social, and economic development of a nation, governments are pressured into providing women access to abortion to protect their national goals. Alternatively, abortion can be framed as destructive to the family structure, which is also posited as a central part of the Mexican nation. For women, information can effectively be used to empower women to make an independent decision about their reproductive health or to coerce, through fear, women into rejecting the option of abortion as a family planning method.
(1) Crane, Barbara B., and Jennifer Dusenberry. "Power and Politics in International Funding for Reproductive Health: The US Global Gag Rule." Reproductive Health Matters 12.24 (2004): 128-37.
(2) Joyce, Kathryn. "Mexican Abortion Wars American-style." Nation 297.11 (2013): 19-24.
The recommendations directly connect population issues to development by recognizing the interrelated nature of reproduction to economic growth, health care, and the overall well-being of the nation. In doing so, it effectively frames population issues as crucial to the progress of a nation, and that they cannot be dissociated from the greater economic, health, and educational well-being of the nation, and thus, is in a country’s best interest to uphold the declaration. The declaration frames abortion as a health concern for women, and resolves that universal access to family planning information and services is the solution.
While it is significant that countries highlighted that women are “agents of change” and thus crucial to the development of a nation, the document articulates broad goals without alluding to the process in which to achieve them. Without detailed guidelines, these statements are too generalized to hold countries accountable for not upholding the declaration on population and development.
Although the 1994 UN Declaration on Population and Development played a significant role in shaping Mexico’s abortion policies, it occurred at a time when the “Global Gag Rule” was revoked by U.S. President Bill Clinton. The Global Gag Rule prevents family planning organizations from using U.S. funds to distribute information about the need for safe and legal abortions, or to provide abortions, for that matter. These restrictions not only limit access to abortion, but also the ability for women to make informed decisions about their health (1).
Information—demanded by the declaration on population and development and restricted by the Global Gag Rule—lays at the crux of the abortion issue. U.S. anti-abortion groups distribute propaganda such as graphic abortion videos and pamphlets that are used by Mexican anti-abortion groups (2). These multimedia sources can be used to manipulate women into making a decision about their abortion and the consequences as well as influence policies, such as changes in certain state’s penal codes that recognize the beginning of life at the moment of conception.
Information, aimed at either the Mexican Government or Mexican women, can effectively shape policy and personal decisions. By framing abortion as central to the political, social, and economic development of a nation, governments are pressured into providing women access to abortion to protect their national goals. Alternatively, abortion can be framed as destructive to the family structure, which is also posited as a central part of the Mexican nation. For women, information can effectively be used to empower women to make an independent decision about their reproductive health or to coerce, through fear, women into rejecting the option of abortion as a family planning method.
(1) Crane, Barbara B., and Jennifer Dusenberry. "Power and Politics in International Funding for Reproductive Health: The US Global Gag Rule." Reproductive Health Matters 12.24 (2004): 128-37.
(2) Joyce, Kathryn. "Mexican Abortion Wars American-style." Nation 297.11 (2013): 19-24.
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