The United Nations (UN) will vote next Monday (11) on a resolution on family proposed by the G77 + China group, and Brazil could be marked as the main responsible for the document’s pro-abortion orientation.
Leading the Latin American bloc, Itamaraty was the main coordinator for the insertion of a paragraph with abortionist content in the text. When talking about issues related to girls and women, the excerpt uses the expression “reproductive health for all” (see the paragraph in question at the end of this text in full). The expression “reproductive health” is one of the most common veiled language that pro-abortion groups use in official documents to facilitate the acceptance of pro-abortion policies.
In private conversations between diplomats at the UN, representatives of some G77 members, especially developing Asian and African nations, expressed surprise and disappointment with the recent stance of Lula’s Itamaraty. Traditionally recognized as a model of diplomacy averse to confrontations, Brazil has adopted, in recent meetings, a polarizing ideological attitude in discussions of the document on family. The pro-abortion lobby led by the Brazilian mission has the support of some nations in the Latin American bloc, such as Mexico.
Elton Gomes, doctor in Political Science from the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) and professor at the Federal University of Piauí (UFPI), says that an initiative of this type could signal a drastic change in Itamaraty and “departs from the main directives of Rio’s diplomacy Branco, which is a very pragmatic diplomacy, based, above all, on foreign trade issues”. “I see this as something atypical for Brazilian foreign policy, which is pragmatic, universalist, multilateralist”, he says.
For him, “if Brazil adopts this type of position, it gives up its traditional role as mediator.” The defense of progressive agendas, according to Gomes, is an atypical stance for a country with aspirations to be “an intermediate power”.
Furthermore, he recalls, the G77 + China, a coalition of more than 130 developing countries, is “a heterogeneous grouping, made up of countries with very different economic, political, social and geostrategic interests and levels of technological development.”
“This diversity makes it difficult to form consensus on very elementary things – for example, import and export tariffs. It is a group that has a limited coordination capacity and with very large differences in priorities”, he states. “Many of these G77 countries have a strong religious influence and tend to oppose initiatives to legalize or expand the abortion procedure”, he adds.
In the G77, consensus between nations is traditionally valued, and resolutions on topics such as family are usually approved without internal divisions. To facilitate this, controversial topics are avoided. If confirmed, the dissent surrounding the family resolution provoked by Itamaraty would mark an unprecedented rupture in the group, as these documents have been approved with unanimous support for decades.
On Tuesday (6), the report from People’s Gazette He contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to clarify the issue, but has not yet received a response.
Representative of Itamaraty at the UN advocates abortion and defends “feminist foreign policy” for Brazil
Issues such as abortion and feminism are more common at UN meetings involving developed nations, where progressive ideologies tend to find more support. However, in recent meetings on the topic of family, this has changed. And, to the astonishment of some members, it is precisely Brazil that has been leading an effort to insert the progressive agenda into the discussion.
This positioning of Brazil’s mission at the UN has been supported by minister advisor Viviane Rios Balbino, appointed to the position by the Lula government in July 2023. With a history of feminist activism within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she has openly pro-abortion views .
In September, in an online lecture entitled “A feminist foreign policy for Brazil” for the University of Brasília (UnB), Balbino stated that “the discussion on the sexual and reproductive emancipation of women” is “absolutely crucial for a feminist foreign policy” . “Sexual and reproductive emancipation of women” is, ultimately, a euphemism for advocating the legalization of abortion.
To avoid the natural rejection that explicit mention of abortion provokes in society, radical feminism adopts strategic language in public debate and in official documents with the aim of softening and normalizing the topic.
Expressions such as “sexual and reproductive emancipation”, “sexual and reproductive rights”, “reproductive health” or “a woman’s right to her own body” say more than they seem, and are often used to later support abortionist policies or measures.
A document such as a UN resolution that contains this expression is not harmless. UN resolutions encourage member countries to adopt policies and actions in line with international consensus. Although they do not have the force of law, they represent a political commitment that impacts international relations and, internally, they serve to support public policies under the justification of alignment with global standards. Ultimately, a UN resolution that is pro-abortion can, for example, be used to support pro-abortion measures within Brazil and other G77 countries.
Current government is “confessionally abortionist”, says former Family Secretary
Jurist Angela Gandra, who was Secretary of the Family at the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights during the Bolsonaro government, criticizes the total rupture of Lula’s Itamaraty with the pro-life and pro-family legacy of his administration. The current government, she claims, adopts a “confessionally abortionist” approach.
“Any diplomacy must protect human values. The UN was formed because of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Ideology cannot use diplomacy. Using the body to disseminate minority ideologies,’woke‘, is different from defending human values, as we defended. Because we were defending the Universal Declaration and what effectively formed the UN”, he comments.
Angela regrets the defense of abortion made by current members of the Brazilian mission to the UN to the detriment of agendas such as valuing the family and defending life. The first sign of this, she recalls, was made in 2023 with Brazil’s withdrawal from the Geneva Consensus, an international agreement in defense of life, women’s health and strengthening the family, signed in 2020.
She says that the MMFDH and Itamaraty worked, during the Bolsonaro government, “so that women were not reduced to sexual and reproductive rights.” For Angela, the abortion movement is part of a logic of utilitarianism that has gained strength in sectors of the UN in recent decades.
What does the excerpt of the document that could be voted on on the 11th say?
16. Invites Member States to adopt family-friendly policies in response to demographic changes affecting families, and to increase investments in this regard, in order to guarantee access to inclusive, equitable and quality education, as well as reproductive health care for all peopleincluding in rural and remote areas. It also invites efforts to eliminate early and forced child marriage through legal, social, economic and educational measures, and to work at the community level to change negative social norms and attitudes, including public awareness campaigns on the negative consequences of this practice , in addition to reducing maternal mortality and promote the empowerment of women and girls in the formulation of family policies in general.”
