A U.S. threat to veto U.N. Security Council action on sexual violence in conflict was averted on Tuesday after a long-agreed phrase was removed because President Donald Trump's administration sees it as code for abortion, diplomats said.
A German-drafted resolution was adopted after a reference to the need for U.N. bodies and donors to give timely "sexual and reproductive health" assistance to survivors of sexual violence was cut to appease the United States.
"It is intolerable and incomprehensible that the Security Council is incapable of acknowledging that women and girls who suffered from sexual violence in conflict — and who obviously didn't choose to become pregnant — should have the right to terminate their pregnancy," French U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre told the 15-member body after the vote.