On March 22, The Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, together with the World Youth Alliance and the Fertility Education and Medical Management Foundation (FEMM), sponsored a Side Event during the 62nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women dedicated to the question, “Affirming the Human Dignity of Rural Women and Girls through Healthcare and Education.” In his Opening Statement for the event, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, said that respecting woman’s dignity means valuing her according to her full humanity, including the maternal meaning of her femininity and the innate patterns of her fertility cycle. Some understandings of "reproductive health" and "reproductive rights,” he said, do not do so, conceptually treating the normal, healthy function of a woman’s body and the motherhood that is naturally associated with sexual activity as ailments to be remedied or something to be suppressed. Pope Francis has said that it is important to promote “the use of methods based on the laws of nature and the incidence of fertility” because they “respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them and favor the education of an authentic freedom. FEMM is one method that does just that, Archbishop Auza affirmed.

His statement can be found here.

To watch the event in its entirety, click here.