{"id":11000,"date":"2026-02-14T11:04:43","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T16:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=11000"},"modified":"2026-02-14T11:04:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T16:04:43","slug":"11000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=11000","title":{"rendered":"\ufeff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

UN agencies call to censor pro-life speech<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

UN agencies call to censor pro-life speech<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Published on

Digital platforms should be held accountable for allowing misinformation on abortion. These agencies working in tandem say pro-life speech is tantamount to \u201cmisinformation\u201d and should be stopped.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Rebecca Oas, Ph.D. at C-Fam<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UN\u2019s<\/a> human reproduction program (HRP), housed in the World Health Organization (WHO), recently published the first of a series of papers examining the impact of abortion \u201cmisinformation\u201d as it relates to human rights.  Their analysis requires their own idiosyncratic understanding of both misinformation and human rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, they accept without caveat that abortion access is a right as part of \u201csexual and reproductive health and rights\u201d, a term never defined or adopted in any international negotiated outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The paper also cites independent experts and committees as sources of human rights standards. Such experts and committees offer recommendations and opinions on human rights treaties, though they have no authority to create new human rights apart from the plain language of the various human rights treaties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, the article makes no mention of the consensus position of the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994) that the legal status of abortion is solely for individual governments to determine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authors define misinformation as \u201cfalse, inaccurate, or misleading information shared without intent to deceive,\u201d while disinformation is spread with knowledge and intent to deceive, and \u201ca particularly harmful form of misinformation, with the potential to deliberately erode human rights protections and restrict access to evidence-based care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an example, the authors cite an article claiming that \u201cinaccurate beliefs about fetal pain were linked with antiabortion views, shaping attitudes toward access and policy.\u201d However, the article they cite bases its view of when unborn children can first feel pain on a \u201ccurrent medical consensus\u201d that simply does not exist<\/a>, while labeling survey participants who support abortion restrictions based on fetal pain as \u201canti-choice,\u201d a clearly partisan\u2014and derogatory\u2014label.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article also expressly calls out the U.S.-based Project 2025 project for containing \u201cstrategies to embed misinformation into federal governance by altering agency mandates and rewording policies to stigmatize and delegitimize [sexual and reproductive health.]\u201d  Here, the citation is to an article in the feminist and pro-abortion Ms. Magazine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another example of misinformation offered by the HRP article is the fact that a Canadian Catholic hospital blocked access to the websites of abortion clinics.  The article is broadly critical of traditional cultural and religious views; it expresses alarm that a \u201ca rising anti-rights movement in Ethiopia, aligned with the US Christian Right, is working to dismantle the right to safe and legal abortion.\u201d  It takes for granted that the nonbinding opinions of UN human rights experts take precedence over religious beliefs. \u201cHuman rights standards related to equality and nondiscrimination are routinely impacted\u201d by misinformation, they write, \u201cparticularly when gender stereotypes, religious ideologies, or cultural beliefs are used to delegitimize SRHR.\u201d  In other words, anything that casts abortion in a negative light is misinformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article does offer some examples of what would commonly be understood as misinformation and disinformation, such as scammers purveying \u201cmiracle drugs\u201d and clearly unqualified people offering spurious medical advice on TikTok.  However, the HRP authors\u2019 credibility is undermined by their own ideological biases and overreliance on citing others who share them.  Ultimately, whatever policy and legal solutions they recommend will have the effect of stifling pro-life voices and censoring conservative viewpoints if they are implemented.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UN agencies call to censor pro-life speech UN agencies call to censor pro-life speech Published on February 12, 2026 Digital platforms should be held accountable for allowing misinformation on abortion. These agencies working in tandem say pro-life speech is tantamount … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6217,6216,2159],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11000"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11001,"href":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11000\/revisions\/11001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}