As one of the agencies of the United Nations, the World Health Organization should in principle be a specialized, unbiased body that provides medical expertise and supports countries with respect to health policy. It would be difficult not to acknowledge the many achievements of this institution, including in fighting against outbreaks of contagious diseases.

However, it is with concern that we have lately been observing more frequent examples of harmful ideology featured in documents drafted by WHO. In particular, the removal of transsexualism from the organization’s list of disorders and formulation of human sexuality guidelines, due to ideological pressure from LGBT activists, has had a considerable impact.

It suffices to point out the highly controversial standards regarding sexual education lessons, which state that four-year old children are to be taught about masturbation, six-year-olds about sexual consent, and nine-year-olds about first sexual experiences and orgasms.

Moreover, WHO’s controversial policies are not limited to vulgar sex education and gender ideology. Many of the agency’s documents drafted in recent years directly advocate abortion as a “reproductive right”, and recommend that it should be widely accessible, including the possibility of abortion at home.

The current coronavirus pandemic has created new reasons to question the reliability of WHO’s findings. The growing distrust of the organization is evidenced, among other things, by the decision of US President Donald Trump to suspend funding to the organization on 15 April. 

As late as mid-January of this year, WHO claimed, along with the Chinese authorities, that there was no evidence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus spreading between humans. This was obviously false and has caused a tremendous loss of confidence in the agency.

More worryingly, together with other UN agencies, WHO is exploiting the pandemic to propagate abortion.

Official WHO documents state that one public health issue endangered by the coronavirus pandemic is sexual and reproductive rights, together with access to abortion. As published on its website, WHO claims that women may “play an important role in protecting their own health”, which is why they should resort to “self-care.” Besides washing hands, “self-care” is supposed to include medical abortion at home. WHO already drafted instructions on this issue in 2019, in its “Guidelines on self-care interventions for sexual and reproductive health.”

Experts unanimously agree that medical abortion at home involves a risk of hemorrhage, and presents considerable danger to a women’s health. Still, in the midst of the pandemic, WHO is advocating this solution even more forcefully, suggesting that mothers should self-administer abortion medication and thus kill their unborn children without the supervision of a health care provider.

WHO believes that facilitating abortion during the pandemic as widely as possible is equal in importance to, for example, protecting pregnant women, and that legalizing abortion is “key” to protecting women’s health.

Provisions of international law and conclusions reached during the most important conferences coordinated by the UN in Cairo (1994) and in Beijing (1995) manifestly indicate that abortion can never be considered as a means of family planning. The Convention on the Rights of the Child – the document that to date has been ratified by the largest number of countries in the world – directly states in its Preamble that every child needs care before as well as after birth.

What is also appalling is that UN documents allow COVID-19 response funds to be used to promote controversial ideas. These include so-called “sexual and reproductive rights,” including abortion (contrary to international law).

Despite WHO’s many positive efforts, its recent actions have led to a loss of both funding and public confidence. This means there are fewer concrete opportunities to respond to public health threats. In the midst of a pandemic, such a strategy is indeed cause for considerable concern.

Given this, it is important to call on the Polish government to formulate specific proposals on how WHO should change its course and return to its original goals, and to start building an international coalition that will pursue this objective.

The World Health Organization should be given a clear message. There is no consent for the use of its mandate to impose ideological proposals which undermine fundamental human rights, such as the right to live, on countries all across the world. It is unacceptable for this institution to pursue ideological solutions under the pretext of combating the pandemic to promote killing children through abortion, a practice that leads to millions of prenatal deaths and a greater risk for the life and health of women.

This is why I encourage you to sign the petition. This is our call to the Polish government, which should decisively demand that WHO return to its original goal of protecting the health of all people, including the unborn!

Only joint and resolute action, especially at the international level, can counter the strong pressure of the far left whose political agenda includes influencing the World Health Organization!

Yours faithfully,