Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 8, 1994 TAG: 9409080073
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: CAIRO, EGYPT LENGTH: Medium
Several African and East European states also jumped off the teetering consensus reached Tuesday night, under which abortion would be specifically exempted from promotion in family-planning programs and left to individual nations to legalize or not.
More than a dozen nations closeted themselves with the Vatican representative to try to work out a new compromise, focusing primarily on objections to characterizing abortions as ``safe'' or ``unsafe'' and describing them as ``legal'' in some countries - terms that Rome says could pave the way toward creating a new international right to abortion. ``The concept of a `right to abortion' would be entirely innovative in the international community and would be contrary to the constitutional and legislative positions of many states, as well as being alien to the sensitivities of vast numbers of persons, believers and unbelievers alike,'' the Vatican's chief delegate, Archbishop Renato R. Martino, told the conference Wednesday.
The abortion issue, to the frustration and occasional fury of both sides, has dominated the agenda of this huge international gathering, aimed at adopting a global population strategy for the next 20 years that will hold the world's population to 7.2 billion.
Despite confident assertions that 92 percent of the program's wide-ranging and often ground-breaking new policies had been agreed to in advance, discussion of critical issues such as expanded reproductive health care, empowerment of women, refugees and migration has been held up for days as delegates have attempted to resolve the abortion controversy. In the conference hallways, a new lapel button has appeared with increasing frequency: ``I Am Poped Out.''
Delegations from Scandinavia, Europe and the United States - left impatiently on the sidelines as the optimism of Tuesday night disappeared - said there would be a final attempt to try to win over the Vatican and its allies, and then the conference document would be adopted with or without them.
By the end of the day, only five nations - Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Ecuador and Malta - looked to be firm holdouts on the abortion issue.
by CNB