LONDON — An article by Joseph Bottum, appearing in Britain's Weekly Standard asks the question: “What price are the international activists who cluster around the United Nations willing to pay to achieve the ability of any woman — at any place, for any reason — to have an abortion?”
In the exposé, Bottum cites figures from a British Lancet article on the increasing childhood mortality rates in the third world. He writes “Of the world's 10 million children who died last year of preventable diseases and starvation, two-thirds could have been saved by effective international intervention through UNICEF, according to a recent essay in the British medical journal the Lancet.” The authors of the Lancet letter go on, writing “We, a group of concerned scientists and public health managers, call on . . . UNICEF . . . to act on behalf of children.” The Lancet scientists plead that “Child survival must be put back on the agenda.”
Bottum also exposes the clandestine motives of various abortion-promoting interest groups such as the Center for Reproductive Rights, a lawyers' nongovernmental organization (NGO) that specializes in suing local and national governments that fail to allow unfettered access to abortion. The secret, internal memos of the CRR were mailed anonymously late last year to Austin Ruse, who heads the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM). Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey reprinted them in the Congressional Record on December 8. One memo admits, “Our goal is to see governments worldwide guarantee women's reproductive rights out of recognition that they are bound to do so.”
In another telling statement from one such abortion-promoting group, Bottum writes that “various women's groups this summer, for instance, denounced the government of Peru — because the Peruvian congress apologized for the more than 200,000 poor women coerced into sterilizations under the 1990s 'compulsory family planning program' of President Alberto Fujimori. 'We do not condone forced sterilizations,' one activist explained, 'but no one can deny that Fujimori's program was excellent in terms of access and information.' The Center for Reproductive Law and Policy issued a press release declaring the 'apology is part of a right-wing strategy to limit family planning options in Peru.'”
See also:
Joseph Bottum's Weekly Standard article, “No Abortion Left Behind”
Vatican withdraws symbolic UNICEF contribution
LifeSiteNews.com report on the secret, leaked documents from The Center for Reproductive Rights
(This update courtesy of LifeSiteNews.com.)
