Bristol, Tenn.—October 21, 2021— The nation's largest faith-based medical organization, the 19,000-member Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA, www.cmda.org), today recognizes the one-year anniversary of the signing of a multilateral agreement on consensus global health issues and meeting women’s health needs, known as the Geneva Consensus Declaration.

Signed on October 22, 2020 by an international strategic coalition of 35 countries including the United States as an original signer, the Geneva Consensus Declaration (GCD) centers around these four pillars: to (1) secure meaningful health and development gains for women, (2) protect life at all stages, (3) defend the family as the foundational unit of society, (4) and work together across the UN system to realize these universal values.

“On this one-year anniversary, we are glad to see this good work continue and grow,” said CMDA Senior Vice President of Bioethics and Public Policy Dr. Jeffrey Barrows, an OB/Gyn. “The coalition serves as the best offense around the globe to protect life, family, real health gains for women and the sovereign right of nations to guard these core values.”

The GCD coalition was created in response to relentless pressuring from international well-funded abortion campaigns to force pro-life countries to liberalize their abortion laws, with the threat of losing U.S. foreign assistance if they failed to comply. Such compromise would have resulted in countless women needlessly suffering from largely preventable health conditions.

Helping to make this vital work possible was former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and Valerie Huber, former HHS Special Representative for Global Women’s Health who is now President and CEO of The Institute for Women’s Health.

Although President Biden removed the United States as a signatory to the Geneva Consensus Declaration, at least temporarily, 36 countries remain signatories and the coalition is very much alive and open to more members. In addition, a future U.S. Administration can immediately rejoin the coalition.  As the coalition grows, its strength and influence exponentially increases.

“As an obstetrician, I especially appreciate the declaration’s dual emphasis on mother and child. The declaration reaffirms both that ‘motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance,’ and ‘the inherent dignity and worth of the human person,” said Dr. Barrows. “We applaud and will support the efforts of the GCD coalition as they work together to defend the core pillars of their mutual commitment.”

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