The Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture, a Polish legal organization that promotes human dignity in law, issued a statement deploring the vote.
“The silence of Poland, as well as Hungary, in taking a position in the international arena, represented a failure to realize the commitment made in the Geneva Consensus Declaration to defend fundamental rights and to fight to restore the true meaning of the concept of human rights,” the statement read.
The institute called the resolution a “missed opportunity” for Poland to defend its sovereign laws and unborn human life.
‘Missed opportunity’ to defend life and values
Ruse said that as far as he was aware, Poland and Hungary “have never broken the EU consensus” on social issues in 25 years.
If Hungary and Poland were to stand up to the EU’s promotion of abortion at the U.N., it would “open the door to many pro-life victories,” Ruse explained.
All 27 countries in the alliance would have to negotiate their own positions on abortion, he said.
“The EU speaking with a single voice is very powerful. If that voice is taken away, then there are great opportunities for the pro-life cause to advance,” Ruse concluded.
Rod Dreher, a senior editor at the American Conservative and author of “The Benedict Option,” is surprised that Hungary and Poland did not vote in favor of traditional values.
Dreher has spent extended time in Hungary as a fellow at the Danube Institute.
“I don’t understand this. There might be a reasonable explanation,” he told CNA in an email.
“That said, even if this vote is unjustifiable, we Americans must not lose track of how strong both governments have been on these issues — Poland more than Hungary on abortion, because abortion rights are, sadly, popular in Hungary, limiting what the government can do,” Dreher explained.
“Both have taken very strong stands against gender ideology in Europe, and have been forced to pay a steep price by Brussels. And they have accepted that price. This is why I can’t pass judgment on Poland’s and Hungary’s U.N. votes without more information,” he said.
Both the Hungarian and Polish delegations to the UN did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication.
UN resolution first to promote global abortion right
The resolution “puts abortion under the category of international human rights in a General Assembly resolution for the first time,” according to C-Fam.
While U.N. resolutions are nonbinding on individual states, Stefano Gennarini, vice president for legal studies at C-Fam, told CNA resolutions are binding “both in terms of the programs and norms the U.N. system promotes globally.”
Gennarini explained that the move is concerning for international law and “can be read by activist judges in domestic and international courts as evidence of a human right to abortion.”
The U.N. did not respond to a request for comment.
Edie Heipel is a former Political Correspondent for CNA's Washington, D.C. bureau. She previously worked in communications for Center for Renewing America, served in the Trump White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and has been a contributor to various outlets including The Federalist and The Charlotte Lozier Institute. She is a graduate of Wheaton College.