by Stefano Gennarini JD, C-Fam
The Trump administration may force the UN agency for children to hit the pause button on sexualizing children, promoting abortion, and gender ideology. Europeans want the agency to ignore the administration.
The new strategic plan of UNICEF was discussed by the executive board of the agency this week. As a result of pressure from the Trump administration, the draft of the new plan no longer has language promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights for children that was controversially included in the previous strategic plan. The draft also scaled back language promoting gender ideology.
The U.S. said the agency had not gone far enough in distancing itself from its work to promote these issues. Europeans protested that these issues must be priorities for the agency.
“We are strongly opposed to the current draft of the strategic plan due to references to concepts like diversity, equity, and Inclusion, gender ideology, and abortion,” a U.S. representative said.
The U.S. asked the agency to focus on its “core mandate” and avoid controversial social issues. The U.S. also encouraged the agency to respect the “vital role” of the family in the life of children and the authority of parents as “key” on matters such as sex education.
“President Trump believes that parents, both mothers and fathers, know how to best raise their children and create a thriving society. We firmly believe that harmful gender ideology, including comprehensive sexuality education, is detrimental to the well-being and development of children, especially usurping basic parental authority,” the U.S. delegate said.
The U.S. statement also emphasized the Trump administration’s categorical opposition to “horrid” transgender policies for children. “Under the Trump Administration, it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures,” he said.
Of note, the U.S. statement also emphasized “there is no international right to abortion.”