"Biden admin pressures Guatemala into pulling out of pro-life declaration against 'right' to abortion"

Republican senators are urging Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo to stand firm in the face of the Biden administration’s efforts to pressure him to withdraw support from a multinational declaration affirming there is no right to abortion.

Signed by 36 nations, the Geneva Consensus Declaration states that “every human being has the inherent right to life,” that “in no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning,” that “any measures or changes related to abortion within the health system can only be determined at the national or local level according to the national legislative process,” that “the child… needs special safeguards and care… before as well as after birth.”

The signatories affirm that “there is no international right to abortion, nor any obligation on the part of the States to finance or facilitate abortion, consistent with the long-standing international consensus that each nation has the sovereign right to implement programs and activities consistent with their laws and policies.”

President Joe Biden withdrew the United States from the declaration within days of taking office as part of its ongoing efforts to promote abortion-on-demand around the world.

The Center for Family & Human Rights (C-FAM) reported that the Biden administration is using the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review of countries’ human-rights records as an occasion to urge nations to withdraw from the declaration, prompting a letter to Arévalo signed by Republican U.S. Sens. Steve Daines of Montana, James Lankford of Oklahoma, and Lindsay Graham of South Carolina urging him to remain in the declaration.