Two challenges for Ireland from head of UN agency

DR Babatunde Osotimehin, the head of the United Nations agency for sexual and reproductive health, was in Dublin yesterday to launch the UN’s annual population report which considers family planning, maternity services, and maternal and infant health in around 200 countries.

At the event, he laid down two challenges that we might imagine we already discharge but maybe we should reconsider if we do.

Dr Osotimehin urged us to treat women who have chosen to have an abortion with compassion and though that is how most of us respond, there is a minority whose reactions are less charitable. He also pointed out that developed countries like this should place a particular emphasis on overseeing and ensuring that children of different class, colour, and ethnic group are supported equally. Unfortunately, it is difficult to argue with any conviction that all children in this society, irrespective of their background, are treated equally. That is almost an unattainable ideal, but we all know we need to do more to make it even a possibility.