New York, Thursday, September 19th: Alliance Defending
Freedom and Incluyendo Mexico joined forces, at the United Nations to highlight
alternative approaches to achieve key Millennium Development Goals. The main
message, presented by the speakers, Alan Sears President, CEO, and General
Counsel of Alliance defending Freedom, Dr. Elard Koch from Chile, Mark Regnerus
of the Austin Institute and Guatemala’s First Lady Rosa Leal de Perez, was:
Let’s get back to basics to improve education, maternal health, infant
mortality, and poverty rates.
“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that each
person has inherent dignity and possesses fundamental universal rights,” said
Alliance Defending Freedom President, CEO, and General Counsel Alan Sears. “If
we remember and live by this, then the United Nations can truly live out its
mission and achieve its Millennium Development Goals of peace and unity among
nations.”
The event titled, “Life and Family: A Real Approach to the
Millennium Development Goals” focused on four of the eight UN Millennium
Development Goals, or MDGs. They can be attained if basic human rights—on which
the United Nations was founded—are protected. In sum, strengthening family
bonds and respecting life can positively affect these four goals: education,
maternal health, infant mortality, and poverty rates.
First Lady of Guatemala, Rosa Leal de Perez, gave the
opening remarks and emphasized Guatemala’s commitment to support strengthening
the family and protecting sanctity of life.
Director of the MELISA Institute, Dr. Elard Koch, provided
solid scientific evidence based on several studies in Chile and Mexico that
prove the correlation between higher education and improved maternal health. He
also dispelled the erroneous assertion that infant mortality rate drops when
abortion is legalized. In fact, throughout different countries, abortion
increases up to 10 percent when abortion is legal.
Similarly, Professor of the Austin Institute, Mark Regnerus,
discussed the importance of focusing on the family to improve education levels.
“We tend to underestimate how much people benefit educationally, economically,
and socially from living in stable families,” he concluded.
“Our call to action today is to move toward a brighter
future and achieve the MDGs by ‘getting back to the basics,” added Sears. “As
we do, we will rediscover and mirror the founding purposes of the United
Nations and the enactment of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
For more information, including media resources and full
playback of the event, please visit: http://www.AllianceDefendingFreedom.org/MDGs
For media requests, please contact: Sylvia Franco Garcia,
Sylvia@inclusionstrategygroup.com and 305-915-4945.
