Caron Whitaker, at a population gathering

Caron Whitaker manages the Population & Environment Program at the National Wildlife Federation. This week she is attending a U.N. meeting to mark the 10th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development.

The U.S. delegation at the United Nations Commission on Population and Development (CPD) is pulling the commission discussions off track. The commission is meeting at the U.N. this week to†assess progress made†on population issues†since the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), and to look toward future solutions. Rather than reaffirming the consensus and focusing on the future, the U.S. is hoping to reopen the 10-year-old document.

The Program of Action from the 1994 conference linked population growth, environmental degradation, and sustainable development; 179 countries agreed that the best way to address these issues was to provide universal reproductive health care by 2015. The CPD meeting will assess progress, identify obstacles to delivering these services, and take steps to ensure a sustainable future for the world and its people.

Today, the conference is being dragged off track by side discussions about language in the 1994 document. The U.S. wants explicit language against abortion instead of the current language, which states that abortion laws must be decided at the national level. The National Wildlife Federation does not take a position on abortion, but believes universal access to voluntary family planning is a long-term solution to the pressures on natural resources and wildlife from a growing world population.

The U.S. administration claims to support international family planning, but its actions are not consistent with its rhetoric. Reopening the negotiations over language not only threatens the viability of the Cairo Consensus -- a living document that lists as its goals universal education, reduction of infant and maternal mortality, and universal access to family planning and reproductive health -- it stops the commission from moving forward on its vital work.

There have been great improvements in the access to and quality of reproductive health care available to women since 1994. More women and families†are using contraception, families have become smaller and healthier, and†almost 95 percent of U.N. members support the work of the U.N. Population Fund, which delivers these services in more than 140 countries, reducing pressure on forests, water, and species. However, there is still work to be done; there are still 120 million couples around the world who want contraceptives but don't have access, many living in rural areas of high biodiversity and fragile ecosystems.

At the 1994 ICPD, Nafis Sadik -- who presided over the conference and is now the U.N. secretary-general's envoy for HIV/AIDS in Asia -- said, "If we had paid more attention to empowering women 30 years ago, we might not have to battle so hard for sustainable development today."

This 10-year anniversary offers the U.N. and its individual members an opportunity not only to reaffirm the promises made at Cairo, but to reinvigorate the fight for healthy families and a healthy planet.