US demands removal of sexual health reference in UN’s Covid-19 response

Civil society groups have condemned calls by the Trump administration to remove references to sexual and reproductive health from the UN Covid-19 humanitarian response plan (HRP).

In a letter to the UN secretary-general António Guterres on Monday, John Barsa, the acting administrator for the US agency for international development (USAid), called on the UN to “stay focused on life-saving interventions” and not include abortion as an essential service.

Barsa’s letter said the plan “unfortunately … does just this, by cynically placing the provision of ‘sexual and reproductive health services’ on the same level of importance as food insecurity, essential health care, malnutrition, shelter, and sanitation”. He highlighted the $650.7m (£530m) USAid had contributed to pandemic funding.

It was essential the UN’s response avoided creating controversy, it read. “Therefore, I ask that you remove references to ‘sexual and reproductive health’, and its derivatives from the Global HRP, and drop the provision of abortion as an essential component of the UN’s priorities to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for Guterres, said the letter had been received and would be responded to. But he added: “I want to clarify that any suggestion that we are using the Covid-19 pandemic as an opportunity to promote abortion is not correct. While we support healthcare that prevents millions of women from dying during pregnancy and childbirth and protects people from sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, we do not seek to override any national laws.”

Barsa, who sent the letter on the day US president Donald Trump threatened to freeze funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) unless it committed to reform, added that now was “not the time to add unnecessary discord to the Covid-19 response”.

Françoise Girard, president of the International Women’s Health Coalition, said Barsa’s letter was “very worrisome”.

“Threatening to cut funding would be a terrible blow to the WHO and the global health response to Covid-19. It’s the only global agency tasked with [dealing with] pandemic health emergencies.

“So the USAid letter has kind of taken off the mask, which is that ultimately they have been gunning for the WHO for years,” she said.

“Sexual and reproductive health and rights has been in concept documents for more than 25 years at the UN so to say there is no consensus or agreement is just false.”

Akila Radhakrishnan, president of the Global Justice Centre, said the letter was “a disgraceful and dangerous attack on essential health services at the worst possible time”.

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“No matter what the US government says, abortion is a fundamental human right and reproductive care is always essential, including during a pandemic. At a time when countless lives are at risk, the US has yet again decided to put its efforts into restricting healthcare instead of expanding it.”

She said Guterres should be commended rather than “bullied” by the US administration.

Michelle Nunn, the CEO of Care International, said she was dismayed by the letter.

“Sexual and reproductive health is and has always has been a critical part of any humanitarian response. Lives depend upon it.”

The Trump administration has lobbied hard to remove key language around reproductive rights from UN documents and succeeded in April 2019 after threatening to veto a UN security council resolution on ending wartime rape.

• This story was updated on 21 May 2020 to include a comment from the UN secretary-general’s spokesman.