Gay Mitchell
Question:132 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will make a statement on the concerns of a person (details supplied) regarding funding of abortions abroad (details attached). [6555/03]
Written Answers - Reproductive and Sexual Health.
The matter at issue concerns draft legislation currently being considered within the Council of Ministers on EU aid for policies and actions on reproductive and sexual health and rights in developing countries.
The European Commission in March 2002 submitted a proposal to the Council and the European Parliament for a new regulation on reproductive and sexual health and rights in developing countries. The previous regulation expired on 31 December last, having been in force since July 1997. The purpose of both the previous regulation and its proposed replacement is to allow the Commission to continue to support programmes in developing countries in the area of reproductive and sexual health and rights. The Commission's role in relation to development co-operation is laid down in Articles 177 to 181 of the treaty establishing the European Community.
The previous regulation and its proposed replacement form an important part of the EC's development policy. The legislation addresses the specific UN millennium development goal relating to maternal health, which calls for the reduction of maternal mortality by three-quarters over the period 1990 to 2015. Throughout the developing world, and particularly in the poorest countries, hundreds of thousands of women continue to die in childbirth because health systems cannot afford proper medical care and appropriate services.
The draft regulation, like the previous 1997 to 2002 instrument, is based on the programme of action agreed at the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 and the "Cairo +5" follow-up conference of 1999. Ireland's position in the Council negotiations on both the draft regulation and its predecessor has been that they must be in strict conformity with the Cairo programme of action, which provides that abortion is not to be promoted as a family planning method and that regulations regarding abortion are solely for individual countries to decide. We are satisfied that the draft regulation in its current form meets this requirement and that it represents a substantial contribution by the Union towards implementation of the millennium development goals, to which the international community is committed.