Words of life
Mother, daughter warn UN delegates about abortions' consequences
By DAVID LOWE Staff Writer

PHOTOS COURTESY ILDIKO CURTIS Elizabeth Curtis, left, and her mother, Ildiko Curtis, recently traveled to the United Nations' 52nd Commission on the Status of Women Conference in New York City. The Lampasas residents traveled with Women for Life International and offered information on the harmful effects of abortion.

Ildiko Curtis and her daughter Elizabeth believe they planted spiritual seeds by taking a pro-life message to the United Nations' 52nd Commission on the Status of Women Conference. Now, they are leaving the results in God's hands.

The Curtises recently returned from a weeklong New York City trip with Women for Life International, an interdenominational Christian pro-lifeorganization. Along with six other volunteers, the Lampasas County residents talked with delegates and offered information about the negative side effects women can suffer after having an abortion -- including an elevated risk of breast cancer and a greater chance of subsequent infertility, miscarriages and premature births.

The volunteers also invited delegates to Women for Life International workshops.

Ildiko Curtis, fourth from left, shared a pro-life message with U.N. delegates from many nations, including her home country of Hungary. Mrs. Curtis met numerous high-ranking delegates, including Eva Soregi, second from left, adviser to the speaker of the Hungarian parliament, and Kerenyi Gyorgy, far right, Hungary's undersecretary of state.

Information packets the group provided included DVDs, books, CDs, pamphlets and fetal models to show a baby's development in the womb.

"I think God was there, and we got to do what we were supposed to do," Mrs. Curtis said.

The team's mission consisted mostly of establishing rapport with delegates and waiting for them to express interest in the organization's materials. Lobbyists, called NGOs, were not allowed to hand out literature at the U.N. conference unless delegates requested it.

"It's all built on personal relationships and our testimonies," Mrs. Curtis said.

She said the pro-life group encountered opposition, as Planned Parenthood representatives tried to throw away materials warning about abortions or advertising Women for Life International workshops. After a Planned Parenthood complaint, security guards evicted an English lobbyist for showing a fetal model.

Women for Life International tried to address other conference participants gently and with a humble spirit, Mrs. Curtis said.

"That's why we found favor in their eyes, because we were not angry or accusatory," she said. "We were honoring to men, which is a rarity there."

Mrs. Curtis talked at length with a German delegate over his lunch hour and to a South African man. She delivered her testimony -- which tells of her conception as a result of rape and of her mother's decision to abort Mrs. Curtis' brother -- to those men and offered other delegates printed copies in English, French, Chinese, German, Spanish and Hungarian.

"It was more like telling a story than giving the facts," she said.

A native of Hungary, a country of 9.9 million where 6 million babies have died from abortion since 1952, Mrs. Curtis felt a special connection with the delegation from her home country.

The last time she traveled to the United Nations, the Lampasas County resident searched in vain for Hungarians to address. This time, she felt the Lord told her not to seek them out.

Nevertheless, while inviting a woman to a Women for Life workshop about the effects of abortion, Mrs. Curtis overheard diplomats speaking Hungarian. They introduced themselves as Eva Soregi, adviser to the speaker of the Hungarian parliament, and Kerenyi Gyorgy, undersecretary of state. Ms. Soregi took a copy of Mrs. Curtis' testimony.

"I believe that was a divine appointment," the Lampasas woman said.

In her first trip to the United Nations, Elizabeth Curtis found herself nervous at times, but she spoke with numerous conference participants, including several young women. Along with meeting a number of African delegates, Miss Curtis delivered a pro-life message to a Belgian delegation, a Canadian, a Swedish woman who supported abortion and a 20-year-old British woman of Iraqi descent.

The English woman's aunt, Zakia Hakki, serves as a member of the Iraqi parliament.

"These are very important people, and (abortion) is a big issue," Elizabeth Curtis said. "It's a little intimidating."

Like her mother, though, Miss Curtis believes the Lord gave her boldness, especially to discuss the harm abortion has caused her extended family.

"How has abortion affected me? Well, there's an uncle I never knew," Miss Curtis said. "Abortion doesn't just hurt the baby. It hurts the whole next

generation."

Mrs. Curtis said God gave Warden Academy her daughter a special ministry to young women, who Mrs. Curtis said showed greater openness than older conference participants to a pro-life message. The Curtises especially enjoyed talking with African delegates, many of whom identified themselves as Christian and pro-life.

"They're polite, and they want to talk to you," Mrs. Curtis said. "They're not `refined' by politics."

The Curtises offered the Africans books warning about the Maputo Protocol, adopted July 11, 2003, as part of the African Charter on People's and Human Rights. The Maputo Protocol ostensibly halts female circumcision, Mrs. Curtis said, but it actually supersedes African nations' sovereignty by legalizing abortion and homosexuality.

"It came in like a Trojan horse," she said of the document, which she said the European Union, not Africans, pushed forward. "It would eradicate African culture and family."

Elizabeth Curtis said Women for Life International showed true concern for African countries by trying to help them avoid the destruction abortion has brought to Europe.

"We care about Africa," Miss Curtis said. "We don't want (Africans) to be exterminated."

Although the pro-life team presented its workshop to a small audience, those in attendance included a group of young Catholic women from South America. Mrs. Curtis believes their generation will be instrumental in reversing the tide of abortion.

The week after the Curtises were at the United Nations, a Canadian group representing Women for Life International gave four workshops at the U.N. complex to standingroom only crowds.

As they seek donations for future trips to the United Nations, Ildiko and Elizabeth Curtis believe God used them to prepare delegates to receive a pro-life message.

"We planted the seeds by speaking to everybody," Mrs. Curtis said. "I saw Him moving [especially] among the Africans, and I saw Him working in the young people."