Pro-abortion and gender: UNICEF is against children

Why should an organisation mandated to aid children in need promote contraception, abortion, explicit sexual content, and LGBT ideology? This is an important question because it concerns not a small organisation, but UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund), which enjoyed revenues of over $8.5 billion in 2024 alone, nearly $5 billion of which came from the public sector. It is no secret that this organisation, like other UN agencies, has been promoting moral relativism for decades. However, a recent detailed analysis by C-Fam, a research institute that monitors the activities of the UN and its agencies, provides an overview of some of UNICEF's most controversial programmes. “These programmes spend hundreds of millions of dollars promoting sexually explicit, even pornographic, content to children worldwide,” Austin Ruse wrote in presenting C-Fam’s work. Regarding pornography, it is worth noting that UNICEF caused a scandal in 2021 with a permissive document, which it subsequently withdrew following protests (see here and here).

C-Fam reviews dozens of UNICEF programmes that promote the early sexualisation of children and generally convey a distorted view of sexuality. One brochure aimed at children aged 10 to 14 states that "all types of sexual orientation are natural", implying that homosexuality and transsexuality are normal. Similarly, masturbation is normalised and defined as "one of the ways to relieve stress, calm sexual arousal, explore your body, your sexuality and your desires". Another brochure (for ages 15–18) states that masturbation "is part of healthy sexual behaviour", a claim contradicted by reality since masturbation, like any act contrary to natural moral law, can cause physical and psychological problems and disorders. In the same brochure, in line with the acceptance of homosexuality, anal penetration is presented as just another form of sexual intercourse. Further confirming that, for the UN agency, male-female complementarity is optional, the brochure states that "it is normal to feel sympathy or attraction for members of one's own sex or the opposite sex".

Furthermore, a UNICEF 'sex education' programme teaches children and young people aged 10–14 that "foreplay and caressing help you to relax, feel comfortable, and increase sexual arousal". Then there is Laaha, an online platform aimed at girls of all ages and created with the support of UNICEF, which does not require parental supervision. One of the activities offered on the site is the so-called mirror exercise, in which girls are asked to “spread your knees apart and hold the mirror in front of your vulva and vagina. Gently use your fingers to find where the most sensitive part of your vulva is”. The examples continue.

UNICEF promotes this kind of disturbing content both inside and outside schools. No area is excluded from the propaganda, including civil society, community organisations, youth centres, health clinics, summer camps, religious institutions, faith-based organisations, after-school programmes, prisons, detention centres and refugee camps, where people seek humanitarian support. This is the audience targeted by the 'comprehensive sexuality education' guide published by the children's agency in 2020 in collaboration with UNESCO, the World Health Organisation, and other UN agencies. The document contains a section titled "Young lesbians, gay and bisexual people, and other young men who have sex with men", recommending the presence of LGBT+ community members as facilitators for groups of minors. It also suggests that controversial topics may be addressed outside of school, which may not always be feasible or acceptable in a school setting. In short, if UNICEF is already promoting radical concepts in schools, it dares to go even further outside of school.

Sex education, in newspeak, also encompasses education on abortion as a right. One might expect an agency dedicated to children to oppose ending their lives in the womb, but UNICEF thinks otherwise. The UN agency participates in or supports various abortion programmes. These include the Human Reproduction Programme, in which UNICEF collaborates with the WHO, the World Bank, the UNFPA, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and some of the world's largest abortion providers, including the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), MSI Reproductive Choices (formerly Marie Stopes International) and Pathfinder International.

UNICEF also participates in a United Nations programme called 2Gether4SRHR, which is designed to promote 'sexual and reproductive health and rights' (SRHR — translated as contraception and abortion) in Eastern and Southern Africa. This programme portrays conscientious objection in a negative light.

The above is only a partial list of all the controversial collaborations, initiatives and programmes involving UNICEF, which cover contexts ranging from war-torn Ukraine to Thailand and, inevitably, Africa. Despite the lack of consensus on these issues in the UN General Assembly and the fact that international law does not recognise the ideological notions of 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity', nor legal abortion, all activities related to these issues are carried out by UNICEF. These matters fall within the competence of individual states, and there should be no interference or pressure from international organisations such as UNICEF. The same could be said for similar NGOs, such as Save the Children.

These facts should prompt reflection on the appropriateness of funding such ideologically compromised organisations, and at the very least on the need to earmark funds for specific, genuine humanitarian interventions. As Benedict XVI warned in a speech to members of Catholic-inspired non-governmental organisations in December 2007, the “relativistic logic” that dominates international debate operates a “selective defence of human rights”. This logic leads to "denying citizenship to the truth about man and his dignity, as well as to the possibility of ethical action based on the recognition of natural moral law", which emanates from God's law. Charity can only be linked to truth.