At the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, the United States presented a joint statement declaring that there is no “international right” to abortion and calling on the governing body to stop using euphemistic terms to describe abortion in its official documents.

“We do not support references to ambiguous terms and expressions, such as sexual and reproductive health and rights in U.N. documents, because they can undermine the critical role of the family and promote practices, like abortion,” said Alex Azar, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, in his remarks at a U.N. meeting on universal health coverage. Azar delivered his statement on behalf of the U.S. and 18 other member countries.

“There is no international right to an abortion,” Azar added, “and these terms should not be used to promote pro-abortion policies and measures.” He argued that the use of vague terms ignores both the role of the family in health and “the sovereign right of nations to implement health policies,” and that this ambiguous language allows for misinterpretation when policies are implemented to give the U.N.’s imprimatur to abortion expansions.

In his speech on Tuesday afternoon at the U.N. General Assembly, Trump himself addressed his administration’s desire to disentangle the U.S. from promoting abortion overseas. “We are aware that many United Nations projects have attempted to assert a global right to taxpayer-funded abortion on demand, right up until the moment of delivery,” Trump said. “Global bureaucrats have absolutely no business attacking the sovereignty of nations that wish to protect innocent life.”

Full story at The National Review.